Korea, China, Japan Join Forces for 5G Standards

Cooperation among South Korea, China, and Japan to set a global standard for 5G mobile technology will soon kick into high gear. 

Korea’s 5G Forum held a workshop in the Imperial Palace Seoul on December 2, announcing the details of global cooperation that the Forum has been pushing forward since its creation in May. 

Han Yeong-nam, chairman of the steering committee of the 5G Forum and professor at KAIST, said, “Since our establishment, we have been requesting the cooperation of Asian countries such as China and Japan for 6 months. And we are moving ahead with plans to work with the EU and US starting next year.” The Chairman added, “International cooperation should be strengthened in order to submit a plan for 5G standards with the Telecommunications Technology Association, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, and the ITU Radiocommunication Sector.”

Currently, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Ministry of Science and Technology support R&D programs through the IMT-2020(5G) Promotion Group and the Future Forum.

In September, Japan also established a next-gen mobile communication R&D group called ARIB 2020 and Beyond AdHoc, and private enterprises are taking the initiative in those research activities. 

The 5G Forum signed an MOU with China’s IMT 2020 in June, and will discuss detailed technologies in the second week of December. The Korean consortium for 5G standards will also sign a letter of intent (LoI) with Japan’s ARIB 2020 Beyond AdHoc in the same period. In addition, the Forum plans to host an expert-level meeting between Korea and Japan in August 2014.