Korean Gov’t, ICT Industry to Jointly Develop Integrated 5G Services

The South Korean government and ICT industry will join hands to develop new business models converging the 5th generation (5G) mobile networks and other industries.

According to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) and industry sources on April 19, “5G Strategy Promotion Committee,” a public-private consultative group run in the first and second half year every year from 2014, has recently opened the door to experts in other industries, such as automobile, medical care, education and culture.

Chaired by Vice-minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning Choi Jae-yoo, the 5G Strategy Promotion Committee, which consisted of three mobile carriers – SK Telecom, KT and LG U+, businesses, including Samsung and LG Electronics, and universities like Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), has decided to expand its members. The partnership has been participated in by heads of Hyundai Motor’s Electronics R&D Center, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Sigong Media, NHN Entertainment and Thirteen Floor.

An official from the ICT and Broadcasting Infrastructure Division at the MSIP said, “We are studying positivistic cases of current 5G converged services in the U.S. and Europe based on automobile, smart city and manufacturing industries. About 20 industrial and academic experts will regularly gather to seek ways to establish 5G converged test beds and improve regulations.”

The MSIP is planning to complete its strategy for 5G converged services developed by the so-called 5G Converged Service Research Team, such as autonomous vehicles, smart cities and smart factories, by the end of the second half of this year.

The 5G converged industry will develop service models based on the 4th generation (4G) long-term evolution (LTE) first and then connect the models with 5G. To this end, Hyundai Motor is preparing for services that can receive and send self-driving and large multi-media contents by using 4G mobile networks. This is because the standards for 5G technologies, including hyper low delay which is the key of safe autonomous driving, have not been set yet. However, the company will discuss with the telecommunications industry to develop its services for drivers and passengers through 5G-based autonomous cars in the future.

It means that Hyundai Motor will not wait for technology development, including technical standards, and develop services models first and then converge them with 5G.

The medical industry also pointed out remote medical services to treat and counsel patients through webcams using 5G and virtual reality (VR) technologies as its next key growth engine. In particular, 5G is required to receive and send large medical data, including videos and images.

In addition, the education and media industries are interested in developing 5G converged services from a user point of view. Remote classes based on digital textbooks and VR and augmented reality (AR) media programs can be actualized only on 5G.