Seeking for Differentiated 5G Services
SK Telecom and Samsung Electronics announced on Nov. 21 that they have signed an agreement on joint R&D on 5G technology to provide unrivaled high-quality 5G services.
The two companies agreed to work together for the development of mobility-enhancing technology for the 3.5GHz and 28GHz bands, development of solutions for coverage expansion of the 28GHz band, and discovery of 5G utilization cases.
The mobility enhancing technology can improve the quality of customer experience in the heterogeneous environment of 3.5GHz and 28GHz operation. The 28 GHz frequency band has a wide bandwidth but a short radio propagation distance, while the 3.5GHz band, on the other hand, has a wide radio propagation range and is mainly used in the nationwide network construction.
Earlier in October this year, SK Telecom was licensed for the first time in Korea at the meeting of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for the technology standard that enables simultaneous data transmission in (5G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) frequency as well as in 3.5GHz and 28GHz bands.
The two companies will jointly develop solutions to expand the coverage of the 28GHz band and continue to push forward for the upgrade of infrastructure. In addition, they will continue to pursue full-scale cooperation in a wide range of areas including review of 5G utilization cases and equipment development.
SK Telecom expects to be able to provide 5G-based ultra-high definition (UHD) video, augmented reality (AR), and autonomous navigation services with more stability and at higher speed.