Solution Consulting
According to the Institute for Information & communications Technology Promotion (IITP) of South Korea, mobile communication is the part that has the highest level of technological competitiveness in the country’s ICT industry. Specifically, the technological strength of its mobile communication sector was equivalent to 91.4% of that of the United States last year. It was followed by broadcasting and smart media (84.5%), information protection (82.7%) and convergence service (80.1%).
“South Korea’s mobile communication sector has a time lag of merely 0.6 years vis-à-vis that of the United States and it is shorter than any of those of the other sectors in the same industry,” the IITP explained, adding, “This can be attributed to its 5G First Call and nationwide IoT network.”
Still, the global mobile communication market is where competition is extremely fierce and a large number of regulations are in effect and, as such, South Korean mobile carriers have their own limitations in increasing their presence in the market. This is the very reason why they failed to open up multiple overseas markets in the past. In this regard, South Korean telecom operators are changing their strategy from direct market access to solution consulting, cooperation with industry leaders, etc.
SK Telecom recently formed a strategic partnership with Bharti Airtel, the third-largest mobile carrier in the world. According to their agreement, AI network operation solutions developed by 250 SK Telecom and SK C&C developers’ two years of work will be established in India by 2019. This marks the first project in which a South Korean mobile carrier provides a global telecom operator with large-scale network consulting along with its technology.
SK Telecom has provided the same consulting since 2012 for 11 mobile carriers in nine countries such as China and Russia. In addition, the company signed a consulting contract with Mobifone, the second-largest player in Vietnam, for the establishment of a nationwide LTE network. According to the contract, SK Telecom’s consulting for network evolution, design and building continues until 2020 and the two companies work with each other during the period in the field of 5G and IoT network and solution.