Steady Investment in ICT Development
SK Telecom is transforming into a global company through active alliances with key partners at home and abroad.
SK Telecom posted 17,473.7 billion won in sales and 1,110 billion won in operating profit, respectively, in 2019 on a consolidated basis. Average sales and operating profit forecasts for 2020 are 18,555.4 billion won and 1.098.9 billion won, respectively, an increase of 4.57 percent and 8.00 percent on year, according to Fn Guide.
SK Telecom is expediting technological cooperation with global companies in various fields where it can create synergies such as VR, cloud games, mobile communication, media, and security.
SK Telecom plans to launch a 5G mobile edge computing (MEC) service targeting corporate customers in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). SK Telecom is the only Korean ICT company that AWS has partnered with to commercialize 5G-based MEC technology. It showed the industry’s first “5GX MEC platform” in August last year, which generates improved ultra-low-latency effects by applying MEC to the base station.
In addition, SK Telecom was selected as an exclusive Korean partner of Microsoft (MS) and is running a pilot service of the cloud game “X Cloud” with MS. Cloud games require ultra-high-speed, ultra-low-latency 5G networks and ample server capacity. SK Telecom designs 5G networks quickly and efficiently through its own 3D-GIS-based wireless design technology. It also has excellent infrastructure technology to efficiently manage large amounts of data traffic. The integrated artificial intelligence (AI)-based network management system “Tango” and the world's first virtualization management platform “T-Mano” can monitor and analyze 5G networks in real time to find and solve problems and optimize the networks on their own.
SK Telecom has been steadily exporting 5G technologies as well. The mobile carrier decided to install 5G RF repeaters developed on the basis of purely Korean technology in major cities in Germany during the second quarter of 2020 and launch a customer experience service.
Bold investments over the years have also begun to pay off. The case in point is IDQ, the world's No. 1 Swiss company in the field of quantum cryptographic communication acquired by SK Telecom for 70 billion won. In October in 2019, SK Telecom landed a quantum cryptographic communication projects in Europe and the United States in about one year since starting to partner with IDQ. IDQ participates in a project promoted by the EU's “quantum flagship” organization as the No. 1 supplier of quantum key distribution (QKD) devices.