Showing posts with label Country South Korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Country South Korea. Show all posts

Tuesday, 22 October 2024

SK Telecom on 'Applying AI to Transform Customer Experience'

FutureNet Asia 2024 took place from September 17-18 at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, marking the event's fourth edition. Earlier this year, FutureNet World celebrated its sixth year in London. The event brought together over 400 industry leaders and visionaries to explore the intersections of network automation and AI.

Eric Davis, Vice President of the AI Tech Collaboration Group at SK Telecom, oversees collaborations with global tech partners to customize large language models (LLMs) for the telecommunications domain. His teams are responsible for designing and building datasets to fine-tune LLMs, as well as benchmarking LLMs both generally and specifically for the telecommunications sector. He gave an insightful talk on how SK Telecom is 'Applying AI to Transform Customer Experience'.

His talk is embedded below:

Following this event, SK Telecom announced AI Pyramid Strategy to become a global AI company. In a press release, they announced:

SKT sets forth ‘AI Pyramid Strategy’ to accelerate innovation centered around three key areas: AI Infrastructure, AI Transformation (AIX) and AI Service.

  • AI Infrastructure, which consists of data center, AI semiconductor, and multi LLM, will serve as a technology platform that forms the basis of SKT as an AI company.
  • AI Transformation (AIX) of SKT’s core business areas such as mobile, broadband and enterprise, as well as new business areas like mobility and healthcare will be pursued to reach a new level of productivity and customer experience.
  • In the area of AI Service, SKT announces the official launch of ‘A.’ and plans to build a globally competitive personal AI assistant service by leveraging its telco and AI assets.

It further mentioned:

SKT today announced that it has branded its AI technology as ‘A.X’ and named its large language model ‘A.X LLM’.

The company is pursuing a multi-LLM strategy, under which it takes a two-track approach to secure diverse LLM lineup as well as an overall platform that encompasses the LLMs. It is advancing its own LLM based on high-quality data accumulated over decades. Simultaneously, SKT is collaborating with a diverse range of partners, including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Konan Technology, to develop tailored LLM and related technologies specifically for the telco industry.

First, in terms of strengthening its own capabilities, SKT plans to advance its LLMs into telco-specific LLMs by leveraging its abundant telecommunications-related data.

In addition, the company will continue to secure more sophisticated LLM technologies based on its supercomputer Titan, which ranked no. 47 on the Top 500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers; high understanding of the Korean language trained with the world’s largest Korean language data; intelligence platform where multi LLMs and AI technologies customized for diverse telco use cases can be utilized; and multimodal LLM technologies that support communication via not only text but also voice, video, and so on.

SKT invested USD 100 million in Anthropic last month, and is working together with Anthropic to develop LLM customized to telcos. The company is also cooperating with Open AI, which includes co-hosting of an AI hackathon in Korea. SKT also invested KRW 22.4 billion in Konan Technology last year, and the two companies are collaborating to enter into the enterprise market with LLMs customized to corporate customers.

■ AI Transformation (AIX)

In the area of AIX, which is located in the middle layer of the AI Pyramid, SKT will innovate its existing core business areas like mobile, broadband and enterprise with AI, while at the same time expanding into new business areas such as mobility, AI healthcare, media and advertising technology. 

In the mobile business, the company stated that AI holds the power to significantly improve both profitability and customer experience. AI can not only be used to acquire/retain customers and provide better customer support via AI Contact Centers (AICC), but also be applied to the network infrastructure to enhance the efficiency in network deployment and operation. The company expects that, in the mid-to long-term, AI will help reduce 20 to 30% of costs compared to the current level.

SKT will also evolve SK Broadband’s Btv service into AI TV to deliver a new level of convenience and value. For instance, ‘AI Curation’ will identify the user and show personalized TV; and ‘AI Home’ will allow users to enjoy various media services by conversing with an AI agent.

In addition, by combining multi LLM with existing AI solutions like Vision AI, Language AI and Big Data AI, the company to expand its AICC business to financial institutions and data platform business to manufacturers. For its generative AI business, it will build customized services for public and financial institutions with strong needs for security and specialized services, while providing SaaS bundles to general corporate customers.

Furthermore, SKT will continue to pursue AI innovation and expand the overall AI ecosystem by growing its new business areas such as urban air mobility (UAM) and AI-based healthcare services like X Caliber. The company will also promote mergers and acquisitions in areas including media and advertising technology to create new business opportunities through AI transformation.

■ AI Service

SKT today announced the official launch of ‘A.’, the world’s first Korean LLM service released in the beta version in 2022. 

The company said that ‘A.’ will evolve into a personal AI assistant service by innovating customers’ communication experience and fully assisting their everyday lives via seamless connection to a wide variety of AI services. 

SKT plans to add an AI phone service, which enables new connections through communication innovation that can only be achieved by a telco. The AI phone will provide a variety of AI services and mobile experiences based on understanding and reasoning of call context.

For instance, it will recommend people to call based on call history and analyze the content exchanged during a call with AI to provide a call summary. At the same time, it connects users to necessary tasks, such as registering the schedule made during a call to the calendar or sharing addresses. More features such as real-time interpretation during calls will also be added going forward.

In terms of integrating AI into all aspects of daily life, SKT will start by offering an AI sleep management solution named ‘A. sleep’ and an AI music service this month.

‘A. sleep’ is developed by combining sleep management solution startup Asleep’s sleep solution and SKT’s AI. It evaluates sleep quality by analyzing user’s sleep patterns. No separate device is needed. It helps users start their day in the best possible condition by determining the ideal wake-up time depending on their sleep status and quality.

The AI music service will not only allow users to edit their playlist by simply talking to A., but also automatically recommend music that matches their tastes based on its generative customer prediction model.

Going forward, SKT plans to leverage its AI service-related experience and knowhow accumulated in the Korean market to develop a powerful personal AI assistant service that can attract global customers.

The company expects that its partnerships with diverse global players – including the Global Telco AI Alliance – will help accelerate its progress. SKT plans to expand its presence in the global AI service market by launching personal AI assistant services simultaneously in many countries across the world by working closely with telcos for localization and advancement of these services.

You can read the complete press release here.

Eric shared some interesting lessons that they have learned as part of rolling out their LLM powered use cases as can be seen from his slide above.

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Tuesday, 3 September 2024

South Korea has Nationwide 5G Coverage

Back in April, the Korean Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) announced that South Korea had nationwide 5G coverage. Just as a comparison, South Korea is about 2.4 times smaller than United Kingdom with a population of 52 million vs 68 million. 

Tefficient compares it with Sweden, which is four times bigger but has a far lower number of base stations compared to that of South Korea. 

While the OpenSignal report from late last year wasn't that impressive regarding the 5G availability, it would be good to compare it with the next one whenever released. 

Finally, here are other couple of charts from Tefficient highlighting the 5G data traffic growth and the subscription growth from South Korea:

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Friday, 11 November 2022

Is South Korea Losing its 5G Crown?


South Korea is second only to Hong Kong in the world rankings of telecom market maturity. It enjoys a highly competitive but stable market, with strong central government support that helps drive the rollout of advanced infrastructure in both the fixed and mobile arenas. South Korea is also on the leading edge of the latest telecom technology developments, including around 6G. And it is host to two of the world’s top equipment manufacturers in the form of Samsung and LG.

With its highly urbanised, tech-savvy population, South Korea also enjoys very high penetration levels across all segments – fixed-line telephony (44% at the start of 2022), fixed broadband (46%), mobile voice and data (144%), and mobile broadband (120%). The performance of the mobile sector is on a par with other developed markets around the region, but it’s the wireline segment that allows South Korea to stand out from the crowd. This is partly a reflection of the large proportion of its population who live in apartment buildings (around 60%), making fibre and apartment LAN connections relatively easy and cost-effective to deploy. The government’s Ultra Broadband convergence Network (UBcN) had aimed to reach 50% adoption by the end of 2022, but that target may be a few more years away. Still, the country already has one of the world’s highest fixed broadband rates.

Fixed-line teledensity is also at a very high level compared to most of the rest of the world, but it has been on a sharp decline from a penetration rate of 60% ten years ago. That fall has forced the incumbent telco KT Corp to diversify into other telecom segments (including investments in 5G and the development of 6G) as well as non-telecom sectors (such as autonomous vehicles) in an effort to transform itself into a digital platform company. However, a major network outage in October 2021 drew the ire of the government and the police (in addition to the consumers and businesses directly affected by the shutdown), suggesting that the company may need to refocus its attention back on its core business.

On the mobile front, users have enthusiastically migrated from one generation of mobile platform to the next as each iteration becomes available. There also doesn’t appear to be any great concern about there being a lack of demand for 5G in South Korea (when the country is already well supported by 4G networks), with 30% of all subscribers having already made the switch. Part of the reason behind the rapid transition may be the subsidised handsets on offer from each of the MNOs and the MVNOs – a practice that has become so widespread and cutthroat that the regulators has regularly stepped in and fined the operators billions of won for breaching the subsidy level and risking a price war that will ultimately damage the entire industry.

There were over 22 million 5G subscribers in South Korea at the end of March 2022 which represented a penetration rate of 45%, served by 215,000 5G base stations. South Korea is one of the most advanced 5G markets in the world, and the scores of South Korea's operators in this report highlight the extent of 5G success.

The total number of 5G subscribers in South Korea reached nearly 24 million in May 2022, according to the latest available data from the Ministry of Science and ICT.

South Korea was the first country to launch commercial 5G networks in April 2019 and currently has 5G coverage across its 85 cities. Korean mobile operators have deployed a total of 202,903 5G base stations as of the end of February, according to previous reports. This figure is equivalent to 23% of total 4G LTE base stations installed in South Korea.

Not everyone is impressed by 5G in South Korea though as you can see in the Tweets above.

KT (Korea Telecom) is the public provider and 2nd network in the country with a good coverage. It's a formerly public enterprise, is relatively cheaper than SK Telecom with the largest WiFi coverage in Korea and a well-organized prepaid plan available. Remember, there is no 2G anymore, just 3G, 4G/LTE and now 5G NR.

KT has also unveiled plans to build a specialized 5G testbed running on the 4.7 GHz band with the aim of enabling multiple customers to access its core network equipment from the public cloud and test private or “specialized” networks.

“When KT’s 5G specialized network testbed is established, it will be possible to perform a one-stop service for testing equipment for 5G specialized network, interworking with terminals, and conducting network trial operation and inspection. It is expected to greatly reduce the cost and technical burden of companies considering the introduction of a 5G specialized network.”

The Korean operator added the testbed is expected to reduce the cost and technical requirements for companies considering introducing private networks.

KT is deploying private 5G networks at Seoul National University and Samsung Seoul Hospital.

SK Telecom is the biggest mobile provider in South Korea. SK operates 3G on the usual 2100 MHz, but 4G/LTE on the rather unusual 850 MHz (band 5) as primary frequency that is rarely covered by devices from overseas (except those capable of AT&T's LTE in the US). The more usual 1800 MHz (band 3) is only employed for back-up. But the coverage is reported to be better than that of KT, by press every year. 2G has been switched off in 2020.

In November of 2021, Swedish vendor Ericsson announced a partnership with SK Telecom, with the aim of supporting 5G Standalone networks through the deployment of a cloud-native dual-mode 5G Core.

Ericsson and SK Telecom had initially unveiled next-generation cloud-native 5G Core networks technology, architecture, implementation and operations plans in March 2019. The vendor said that this latest cooperation builds on the existing partnership. According to Ericsson, the dual-mode 5G core is deployed on its bare metal solution, known as Ericsson Cloud Native Infrastructure.

Ericsson had previously provided SK Telecom with 5G radio access network (RAN) equipment and network management system for their commercial 5G network rollout.

LG Uplus is working to further expand its 5G coverage across the country. In July this year, the operator secured an additional 20 megahertz of spectrum to use for 5G.

The Ministry of Science and ICT confirmed the allocation of the 3.4-3.42 GHz frequency band to LG Uplus, in addition to the 3.42 to 3.5 GHz spectrum that the telecom company bought in 2018.

LG Uplus had previously asked the Korean government for an additional 20 megahertz of spectrum to boost its 5G offerings. In a government spectrum auction in June 2018, rival operators SK Telecom and KT had secured 100 megahertz of spectrum, while LG Uplus had only acquired 80 megahertz.

During a keynote speech at Huawei’s 2022 Mobile Broadband Forum, held this week in Bangkok, Thailand, Yoon Ho Choi, president of XR business department at LG Uplus noted that the company’s 5G coverage had reached 85% of the population in large cities and central rural areas across Korea. The executive also highlighted that the level of 5G availability at a national level was 90.9% and 95.2% in capital Seoul. He also noted that the average download speed of the telco’s 5G service was 640.7 Mbps.

While the mobile operators have been very enthusiastic about 5G, people aren't as excited. While the data rates have increased and latencies reduced, there are still many technical issues that regularly plague the users. One of the lessons Japanese operators learned after being the first to launch 3G was to not roll out a technology until it was thoroughly tested. The Korean operators maybe learning this as well.

South Korea is seeing a rapid adoption of 5G private networks, chiefly due to the widespread coverage of 5G technology in the country and the allocation of specific spectrum by the government to enable private network deployments.

In August, South Korean tech firm Samsung announced a tranche of new private 5G deployments in its home country, including with three public sector agencies and two private sector hospitals. The vendor noted that this project is part of the government initiative to advance the country’s private 5G ecosystem, allowing non-telecom operators to build and operate 5G networks using 4.7GHz and 28GHz — which are dedicated frequency bands for private 5G networks in Korea.

Samsung said it was selected in each case – by three state-owned utilities and two privately-owned hospitals – “as part of the government’s” drive to release spectrum for industrial change. Its three public sector contracts – with Korea Electric Power Corporation, Korea Industrial Complex Corporation, and Korea Water Resources Corporation – are geared around “workplace safety and efficiency”, it said.

The vendor also said that this new project follows Samsung’s previous deployment of what it claimed to be Korea’s first private 5G network at Naver’s new headquarters.

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Wednesday, 17 November 2021

5G Network Sharing using MOCN for Rural South Korea

South Korea may have been the first country where all the networks switched on their 5G but that does not mean they have been having an easy ride. 

Back in April, the ICT ministry announced that the three major mobile carriers will share their 5G networks in remote coastal and farm towns in a move to accelerate the rollout of the latest generation networks. The Korea Herald reported: 

The carriers -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- signed an agreement so that 5G users can have access to the high-speed network regardless of the carrier they are subscribed to in 131 remote locations across the country, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Under the plan, a 5G user would be able to use other carrier networks in such regions that are not serviced by his or her carrier.

The ministry said telecom operators will test the network sharing system before the end of this year and aim for complete commercialization in phases by 2024.

The ministry said the selected remote regions are sparsely populated, with a population density of 92 people per square kilometer, compared with those without network sharing at 3,490 people per square kilometer.

The move comes as the country races to establish nationwide 5G coverage, with network equipment currently installed in major cities.

In another article back in September, The Korea Herald reported:

The number of 5G network base stations in South Korea accounted for just 11 percent of the total in the second quarter, data showed Monday, amid continued user complaints against the latest generation networks.

As of the April-June period, there were 162,099 5G base stations in the country, compared with a total of 1.47 million mobile network base stations, according to data from the Korea Communications Agency.

The number of 5G base stations was far outnumbered by around 1 million 4G base stations and over 300,000 3G base stations.

In comparison, the number of 5G users accounted for 23.8 percent of the total in July at just over 17 million, while there were 50.5 million 4G users and 20.2 million 3G users.

The latest data comes as local mobile carriers have faced complaints from 5G users over spotty connection and slower-than-expected speeds since the networks' launch in April 2019.

At a recent GSMA conference, Daehun Lim, Head of Global Strategic Partnerships, LG Uplus shared the 5G Rural Network Sharing plans in more details. The picture on the top shows the timelines and the areas that are planned to be covered by each operator.

The network sharing will be based on MOCN which we have explained in our tutorial here.

Since the 5G spectrum allocation for all the operators is very similar, we don't expect any issues with the network sharing plan going forward. We will have to wait a couple of years before is becomes commercially available though.

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Monday, 22 March 2021

Wi-Fi and 5G Status in South Korea


Last year we reported on this blog that South Korean Ministry of Science and Technology Information and Communication is heavily promoting Wi-Fi 6, in 6GHz (a.k.a. Wi-Fi 6E). 

Back in February, South Korea's ICT ministry said that it has made over 15,000 new public Wi-Fi service zones available across the country and in buses last year, bringing the total locations with free public Wi-Fi to over 57,000. Yonhap News Agency revealed:

The Ministry of Science and ICT said the public can access free Wi-Fi in 28,132 public locations, such as bus stations, public facilities and parks, and also in 29,100 buses.

By region, there are 2,529 public Wi-Fi locations in Seoul, with 4,358 locations in the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, according to the ICT ministry.

South Korea has recently boosted efforts to expand public Wi-Fi zones that had previously been limited to indoor facilities, such as community centers and traditional markets.

The ICT ministry said it has focused on outdoor locations, installing free Wi-Fi at 7,949 bus stations, 1,286 parks and 320 major streets across the country from 2019 to 2020.

The ministry has also replaced 18,000 aging routers with the latest Wi-Fi 6 equipment, resulting in speeds that are three times faster on average.

The ministry said it plans to establish 15,000 additional public Wi-Fi zones this year.

You can see a video of one such Free WiFi on Bus event here.

Hackaday reported that the government has released the details of the 220,000 WiFi access points to the public. This includes the location, IP address, and RSSI data for use by people and companies wanting to develop location-based services.

Aju Business Daily said Geographical locations, internet protocol addresses and received signal strength indicators (RSSIs) have been collected for emergency response purposes and to pinpoint the location of an AP or to calculate the floating population. RSSI is an estimate of the strength of WiFi signal between an AP and recipient device.

In the mobile news,  Tefficient reported that 4G/LTE traffic has been going down as 5G traffic grows.  February 2019 was the last time monthly 4G traffic was so low (380 PB) in South Korea as it was in January 2021. 4G visibly in decline the past months while 5G traffic grew to 45% of total.

Also as you can see in the other tweet, South Korea's operators net added over 1 million 5G subscribers in January 2021 - the first month over 1 million since the 5G launch. 18% of total mobile subscriber base now 5G.

But not everyone is happy with 5G. The Korea Bizwire reported:

Hundreds of 5G smartphone users in South Korea are banding together to take legal action against the country’s three major telecom operators — SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. — for spotty connection and the poor quality of the latest generation network, industry sources said Thursday.

As of Thursday, around 1,000 5G smartphone users have expressed intent to take part in the collective lawsuit to seek at least 1 million won (US$890) in compensation per user from the three mobile carriers over their 5G network quality that fall short of expectations, despite their costlier pay plans, according to Kim Jin-wook, a lawyer at law firm Joowon, which is spearheading the legal action.

Kim argues that 5G network quality is not a discernible improvement from previous 4G LTE networks and has drawbacks, such as limited availability.

The three telecom operators had deployed 166,250 5G base stations as of November last year, which is just 19 percent of the number of 4G base stations, according to industry tracker Opensignal.

South Korea’s 5G coverage centers around major urban areas, such as Seoul, with carriers aiming for nationwide coverage by next year.

Carriers also initially advertised 5G download speeds as being 20 times faster than 4G LTE, but a government report last year found that average 5G download speeds were around four times faster than those of 4G.

“Considering that monthly 5G plans are around 50,000 won more expensive than 4G LTE plans, we expect around 1 million won in compensation for users subscribed to two-year plans,” said Kim.

He added that the lawsuit will be filed in May after gathering more participants.

This may be the catalyst the Korean operators need to massively improve the 5G user experience for the end users.

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Sunday, 15 November 2020

South Korea's Ministry promotes Wi-Fi 6, says WiFi is like 5G

While many of us are talking about Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6 has yet to gain popularity. The latest Google Pixel phones for example don't support Wi-Fi 6 but all the latest iPhones do.  

This is not stopping the Ministry of Science and Technology Information and Communication in South Korea from promoting Wi-Fi 6, in 6GHz (a.k.a. Wi-Fi 6E)

As you can see from the press release, 1200 MHz of spectrum is available for this new Wi-Fi. This video shows that they are serious in promoting Wi-Fi everywhere. In fact they compare it with 5G and even show Wi-Fi 6E as a winner. 

Back in June, Wi-Fi NOW had already predicted that South Korea could become Asia’s first 6 GHz Wi-Fi nation. You can read about it here.

In a press release this week, Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), the worldwide industry body dedicated to improving Wi-Fi services and standards, announced the conclusion of five trial deployments of Wi-Fi 6 across diverse markets. WBA members including network providers, infrastructure vendors and device vendors set up the trial environments and executed the test cases in end-to-end real-life networks. One of these trials was by SK Telecom in retail, the COEX Shopping mall, which is the biggest complex shopping mall in Korea with about 250,000 visitors per day in average.


The detail from the case study is available in the report here.

SK Telecom deployed Wi-Fi 6 to improve connectivity for consumers, increase quality of experience (QoE) for densely populated areas and provide high throughput for immersive media services. Wi-Fi 6 reduced latency by 80 percent, reduced throughput fluctuation, and improved service reliability to customers anywhere, anytime, throughout the mall.

I am hoping to start seeing many more of these kinds of deployments in the next year.

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Saturday, 15 August 2020

How many 5G Cell Towers & Base Stations Worldwide?

A question I often see people ask is how many cell towers / base stations are there worldwide? Surprisingly this information is not as easy to obtain as you may think initially. We can use this chart from a Light Reading webinar as a starting point:


Many years back someone explained a rule of thumb to me. There is on an average 1 site for every 1000 subscribers. With roughly 8 billion subscribers, this will amount to 8 million sites.

Omdia statistics from above says that there are 7 million physical sites and 10 million logical sites. As there are many sites hosting infrastructure from multiple operators, the number of logical sites are more than the number of physical sites.

In addition there will be small cells mounted on lamp posts, side of the buildings, indoors, etc. that generally may not be included in the count mainly.

When it comes to base stations, there is a debate on what is included. For example on a tower hosting multiple operators, each of them will have their own Baseband Unit (BBU), so this is multiple base stations. If for an operator, there are multiple generations of technologies and within each of these generation, multiple frequencies, sectors, etc. Do they count as a single base station or multiple?

Then there are towers and masts. Wikipedia nicely explains that "The terms "mast" and "tower" are often used interchangeably. However, in structural engineering terms, a tower is a self-supporting or cantilevered structure, while a mast is held up by stays or guys."

So coming back to 5G, how many base stations have been rolled out in the major markets?

Japan

In an earlier post on NTT Docomo, we pointed out that Docomo coverage is forecast to increase from 500 base stations in 150 locations to 10,000 sites (in about 500 cities) by June 2021 and 20,000 by March 2022.

According to Tefficient, Rakuten had 5739 LTE base stations on air at the end of June. The three incumbent operators have roughly 200000 LTE base stations each.



South Korea

South Korea were the first to launch commercial 5G by all operators in the country. As of July 2020, they had 121,000 5G base stations



China

Back in December last year, Global Times reported, there are currently approximately 6 million 4G base stations worldwide, more than half of which are in China and about 300,000 in the US. Why does China have so many base stations? This is because of a nation-level project in China in 2003. The project required that more than 95 percent of remote mountainous areas should be covered with communication signals and the fees must not be higher than those in urban areas.

In an earlier post we reported, the total number of 4G base stations in the first half of 2019 was 2.71 million including a net addition of 300,000, providing robust support for the development of large volumes of data traffic business.

European 5G observatory reported that China intends to have 600,000 5G base stations by the end of 2020. According to RCR wireless, Chinese telcos have already deployed over 20,000 5G base stations in Shanghai.

According to Tefficient, China Mobile had 188k 5G base stations in June 2020. So China then had a total of 398k 5G base stations



This video from CGTN a few months back gives some good info on the Chinese 5G deployments.




There isn't information available from other countries. If available in the next few months, I may add them here.

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Sunday, 29 September 2019

LG Uplus Tests 5G in 28GHz band using 800MHz Bandwidth. Sees AR as 5G Killer App


In a recent press release (no shareable link but press releases are here - see 27 Sep), LGU+ announced that they have tested 5G commercial environment in the 28 GHz band using 800 MHz bandwidth. I am assuming this means Carrier Aggregation. With this they have successfully verified 4.2 Gbps DL and 1 Gbps UL speeds.

The press release (using Google translate from Korean) states:

This test is based on the 3GPP standard based on the 28GHz frequency bandwidth 800MHz allocated by LG Uplus, and tested by applying the terminal specifications expected to be released next year.

Download 4.2Gbps is more than three times the current 3.5GHz 5G download speed of 1.33Gbps, enabling HD-quality 2GB movies to be downloaded in four seconds. Upload 1Gbp is now more than 10 times the 3.5GHz 5G upload maximum speed of 85Mbps.

Testing was done using two antennas and 64QAM technology. LG Uplus plans to increase speeds by two to three times with four additional multi-antenna MIMO technologies and advanced modulation (256QAM).

At the end of 2017, LG Uplus conducted a speed verification of 20Gbps maximum speed by combining 28GHz and 3.5GHz as non-standard equipment.

28GHz is installed in hot spot areas such as Hongdae and Gangnam, shopping malls and stadiums, and has a large amount of data and a large number of floating populations to provide stable high-speed services. do.

In particular, the maximum upload speed is 10 times higher than the existing LTE and 3.5GHz 5G speed 75 ~ 85Mbps, smart factories that require a lot of upload capacity. It is expected to provide a new service environment in the enterprise and industry areas such as 200 cars can be accommodated) and personal service areas such as real time live broadcasting and customer video transmission.

As 28GHz uses high frequency, it has high straightness and is affected by obstacles and has a small coverage, so it needs more careful base station location design and more time and effort for quality stabilization.

LG Uplus Sang-Heon Lee, NW Development Officer, said, “This test was conducted to prepare for commercialization, and to improve cell design and mobile / boundary quality advancement at the optimal location.” 28 GHz is one of the core values ​​of 5G. It is an important technology that provides ultra high speed, but it is difficult to handle, so we will thoroughly prepare to satisfy both speed and quality from the customer's point of view. ”


Average data usage by 5G users is as high as 18.3GB, and average 4G users use 9GB in the same period, according to MSIT in May 2019. 5G data is about 2 times than that of 4G. This remarkable traffic growth is driven by UHD and AR/VR contents. According to LG Uplus, new services featuring AR and VR functions are proving popular and already account for 20% of 5G traffic, compared with 5% for 4G. The company said it aims to double the number of AR content to 1,500 by the end of this year, including K-pop dance, home training and sports videos, to cater to varied consumer needs.



The above video is one of the adverts for the LG Uplus AR K-Pop (Korean popular music) app. K-Pop is a musical genre consisting of pop, dance, electropop, hiphop, rock, R&B, and electronic music originating in South Korea. In addition to music, K-Pop has grown into a popular subculture, resulting in widespread interest in the fashion and style of Korean idol groups and singers.

While it looks like 5G is making an impact for the operators and the users in South Korea at the moment, the real challenge is to see if this trend continues. Also, it may be a bit difficult to replicate this success in other countries. We will have to wait and see.
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Sunday, 1 September 2019

5G+ Strategy of the Republic of Korea


    Back in April this year, the South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT provided details not just about 5G commercialization but also about the future 5G+ strategy. This post combines that announcement with a recent presentation by the Ministry at UN ESCAP:

    The Korean government celebrated world’s first 5G commercialization in Olympic Park on April 8 2019 and shared the national vision for realizing an innovative growth in the 5G era. On that day, the Korean government announced the ‘5G+ Strategy’ as a way to create new industries and services based on 5G and pledged to establish the world’s best 5G ecosystem moving on from being world’s first. In particular, the Korean government proposed the goal to reach 180 trillion won in productivity, 73 billion dollars in export and create 600,000 quality jobs by 2026, through promoting 5G+strategic industries (major 10 industries and 5 services).

    As an effort to nurture 5G-based new industries and markets and improve the quality of people’s lives, 52 specific tasks under the following major five strategic areas will be implemented.
    1. secure early market and improve people’s quality of life through taking initiative in investing in public sector
    2. create testbed for expanding investment in private sector and develop industries
    3. support 5G service facilitation and user protection through system maintenance
    4. nurture globally recognized innovative enterprises and talents through establishment of industrial foundation
    5. globalize Korea’s 5G technologies and services through providing support to overseas expansion
    Demonstration and spread of 5G+ core services
    provide support in identifying and demonstrating profit models in 5 core areas in the private sector (2018~2021) ⇨ carry out 5G+ innovation project for deployment and spread of services (2021~2025)
    1. immersive content: real time hologram performance for remote areas
    2. smart factory: solution development for each industry and spread of industrial complex
    3. autonomous vehicle: develop and distribute 5G self-driving shuttle buses
    4. smart city: emergency rescue service in fire sites
    5. digital healthcare: emergency medical service between ambulances and hospitals
    Support demand creation in public sector
    • (SOC) support safe and efficient management of infrastructure and deteriorated facility
      • (infrastructure) carry out ‘5G+ smart SOC project’(2020~) for establishing real time monitoring system (utilization of 5G robots and CCTVs etc.) on road, port and airport etc.
      • (life support facility) support real time 5G-based safety monitoring in educational and cultural facility (2020~)
      • (deteriorated nuclear power plant) develop and adopt safe, 5G-based nuclear power plant decommissioning technologies such as real time monitoring of high risk work sites and identifying biometrics of workers (2020~2023)
    • (utilize cutting-edge device) create 5G device market based on public demand
      • (robot) carry out 5G public service robot (guide robot on public facility etc.) pilot project (2020~)
      • (drone) support R&D and demonstration of 5G drone service such as public safety, environment and measurement (2020~) and develop 5G drones for mail delivery (2019~2021) and connect this to public procurement
      • (CCTV) implement 5G intelligent CCTV R&D and demonstration as well as disaster safety pilot service (2021~)

    improve people’s quality of life through 5G public service deployment
    • (5G+ life sustaining project) distribute 5G solutions* based on public demand for improving people’s livelihood in areas such as education, agriculture and environment and resolving regional social issues (2021~)
      • * e.g. (immersive education) provide 5G-based, VR and AR remote education and training for local and vocational schools, (smart agriculture) deploy 5G unmanned tractors and drones, (environmental monitoring) 5G-based, real time fine dust monitoring etc.  
    • (improve medical service) implement ‘5G-based collaborative telemedicine pilot project’ for hospitals and clinics (2020~) → increase the portion of the medical facility with scale similar to or larger than that of general hospital to 50% by 2023

    create 5G-based smart city
    • (national pilot city) establish data and AI center in pilot city for building data-based intelligent urban operating system in connection with 5G (2020~2022)
    • (existing city) support expansion of 5G-based smart city technologies by active deployment of 5G to projects in turning existing cities into smart cities such as smart city challenge (2019~)
    Expand private investment by:
    1. tax credit and investment
    • provide tax credits to network investment (2~3% for 2019-2020) for inducing early deployment of nationwide 5G network and invest in innovation companies by engaging in financial programs driving new growth*
      • * program supporting advancement in industrial structure (10 trillion won for 2019-2021), KP Inno fund (1.2 trillion won for 2019∼2022), smart factory fund (300 billion won for 2019∼2021) etc.
    1. establish 5G testbeds and demonstration infrastructure
    • (establish testbeds) establish 13 5G testbeds and demonstration infrastructure in five areas including various 5G terminals and equipments, 5G Vehicular-to-Everything*(V2X) communications, 5G drones** and edge computing
      • * provide support in verification of 5G autonomous driving performance on real roads in K-City(Hwaseong), Pangyo zero city and Sangam of Seoul (2019∼)
      • ** establish 5G test infrastructure in 5 drone flying test sites which are in the process of construction (Yeongwol, Gosang, Boeun etc.) (2020∼2021)
      • provide internationally accredited certificate service for supporting 5G terminal and V2X exports (2019~)
    • (5G challenge) hold contests for demonstration and expansion of 5G autonomous vehicles and drones
    • (establish clusters) establish ‘Songpa mobile cluster’ which has expanded the existing function of supporting radiowave and security industry to providing support to 5G equipment development and demonstration (2020~2025)
    1. promote 5G technology commercialization of SMEs
    • (network equipment) increase support for R&D of technology commercialization in 5G equipment (small cell, repeater, modem etc.) of small and medium-sized enterprises (to take up 25%(2017) → 35%(2020) out of mobile communication R&D)
    • (purchase conditional R&D) expand R&D support for commercialization of SMEs based on demand for purchasing 5G-based new technologies and products of public institutions and foreign countries
    1. support facilitation of 5G content market
    • carry out ‘5G content flagship project*’ and secure infrastructure for development hub (2019~) for creating major 10 globally recognized 5G content by 2022
      • * e.g. (immersive media) 360° VR sports streaming, (immersive communication) hologram video conference, (immersive life) VR shopping, (industry convergence) control AR factory and farm, (public service) VR safety education
    1. support innovation of productivity in leading industries
    • (smart factory) support gradual distribution* of 5G factory solutions optimized for innovating manufacturing and processing of small and medium sized enterprises to 1000 factories by 2022 (2020~2022)
      • * target for establishment: 200 (2020) → 300 (2021) → 500 (2022)
    • (shipbuilding) secure core technologies of ‘smart yard’ (2021~) providing support to demonstration of 5G-based smart telecom environment establishment in shipyard (2020~2023) and technologies which automate and optimize processing
    • (maritime port) establish smart maritime port logistics system which is automatic and intelligent based on 5G (pilot project: 4 ports including Busan Port and Gwangyang Port) (2019~)
    • (energy) set up an optimal energy generation system through real time 5G and big data processing in order to respond to expansion of renewable energy (solar energy etc.) generation complex (2020~2023)
    • (manufacturing AR) provide pilot AR service (AR manual, AR remote support etc.) in the field of manufacturing to small and medium sized enterprises in relation to 5G smart factory distribution (2020~)
    Support 5G service facilitation and user protection through system maintenance
    1. telecom service plan and system maintenance
    • (launch 5G service plan) induce the launch of service plan* which does not rapidly increase household burden on telecom fee, so that citizens can use various 5G services (April 2019~)
      • * continue to reduce rate for data per unit compared to LTE from the first 5G service plan
    • (support B2B facilitation) improve service plan to be flexible enough to reflect various 5G services such as autonomous vehicles and smart factories (2019~)
    1. secure radiowave resources and improve regulations
    • (allocate frequency) double frequency for 5G service by 2026 (2,680MHz bandwidth as of now → 5,190MHz bandwidth) and allocate frequency for 5G convergence service (autonomous vehicle and smart factory etc.) (2019~)
    • (improve regulations) support ease of administrative burden through measures including introduction of ‘frequency license system’ (revise radiowave act, 2019~) which integrates and simplifies the process of frequency allocation and radio station establishment
    1. create the safest user environment

    • (cyber safety) establish preventive system for cyber security breaches such as designating 5G core facilities to be critical IT infrastructure and coming up with ICT convergence security system* (revise the act on information communications network, 2019~) 
      • * legal grounds in relation to IoT device and service security, recommendations for convergence service security standard etc.
    • (reinforce stability of communication networks) establish communication disaster prevention and response system such as expanding subjects to government inspection to all of major communication facilities (80→870) and securing detour route for signal transmission between facilities etc.

    1. regulatory innovation for 5G convergence service

    • identify items for regulatory improvement in connection to regulatory sandbox and pilot project and ease regulations for location based information project (grant system → registration system, revise location information act)

    1. bridge digital divide and protect users

    • (bridge digital divide) reinforce accessibility to new terminals and services for the vulnerable class (the disabled and elderly) and expand education for utilizing intelligent information service focused on real life experiences (VR, AR etc.)
    • (principles of protecting users) set principles to prevent new kinds of damages done to users and strengthen their rights amid expansion of 5G convergence service and intelligent information technologies (2019~)


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    Saturday, 22 June 2019

    How is KT Reducing the Latency of their 5G Network


    During the keynote at 5G World 2019, Youngsoo Seo, SVP, Head of Regional Network O&M Headquarter, KT explained that one of the main differentiation for KT 5G network is the reduced latency. While a normal 5G network would take 18 ms, KT 5G network takes only 10ms.

    Latency is a big area of focus for KT. Their announcement on 5G commercial network launch had 8 mentions of latency. Mainly:

    KT’s ‘5G First’ Network Strategy Focuses on Latency and Speed

    KT unveiled its “5G First” strategy to focus on providing the best network, with an emphasis on latency. By favoring the 5G network, this new strategy makes the best of 5G’s ultra-low latency and helps conserve smartphone batteries about 25 percent.


    The press release also mentioned:

    To better support 5G’s ultra-low latency, KT also operates mobile edge computing (MEC) telecom centers in eight major cities, including one on Jeju Island, the country’s southernmost territory. Using the largest number of MEC centers, the company can process data from handsets closest by to enable more reliable and seamless transmission.

    Low latency is vital for 5G users to enjoy immersive media such as cloud-based streaming games and AR/VR as well as other key services such as autonomous driving.

    One of their 5G adverts focuses on AR & VR apps that definitely requires low latency



    Netmainas has a good summary of the South Korean giants SK Telecom and KT here. In a recent article, they outlined the KT's 5G NSA Network architecture as shown above. Their website provides much more details.

    With the Standalone 5G network, they will be able to reduce this latency much further once the UPF can be optimally located to reduce latencies where really needed.


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    Friday, 31 May 2019

    SK Telecom's 5G Strategy and Services



    No doubt SK Telecom is one the operators leading the way on 5G. Here we look at some of their exciting upcoming initiatives that will change the everyday lives of their customers.

    Firstly regarding autonomous driving: SK Telecom and Seoul Metropolitan Government have entered into an agreement to jointly develop and verify HD Map technologies for autonomous driving. They will cooperate on the development of services for HD Map covering a total of 121 kilometers of public roads. These roads have been selected by Seoul’s Cooperative-Intelligent Transport System (C-ITS) project, by installing 5G Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to 1,600 buses and 100 taxis. This project is designed to develop a transportation system infrastructure, including a 5G network and V2X system, on major roads of Seoul. In January this year, SK Telecom won a contract to deploy 5G infrastructure and services in the area. A total of 1,700 units of 5G ADAS installed in buses and taxis will collect 124 different types of road/traffic information and transmit the data via 5G network to support real-time update of the HD map. 5G ADAS, installed in public transportation vehicles, are designed to support vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication.




    SK Telecom and the Seoul Government also intend to create an autonomous driving ecosystem by opening up related infrastructure such as HD maps and data collected by 5G ADAS. The operator has announced a collaboration with three Korean cities — Songdo, Yeongjong, and Cheongna — to use 5G for “HD maps” that will cover 132.9 square kilometers down to the centimeter, including lanes, road slopes, and speed limits. They expect that the maps will be updated in real time with changes including road conditions, all in the service of enabling self-driving vehicles to safely travel the roads.





    Regarding the introduction of 5G technology into hospitals; SK Telecom has signed a MOU with Yonsei University Health System to provide digital solutions across 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and the Internet of Things (IoT) for their hospital intended to open in February 2020.

    According to SK Telecom:
    "The 5G-powered digital hospital will be equipped with SK Telecom's AI speaker NUGU to enable patients with physical difficulties to easily control their beds, lighting, and TV with their voice. They can even use NUGU Call service to get medical assistance in case of emergencies. Moreover, the 5G-powered digital hospital will offer AR-based indoor navigation service through the application of indoor positioning and 3D-mapping technologies to enhance the convenience of patients and visitors."
    Patients in isolation wards will also be able to receive visitors via holographic projections, the carrier said, while facial recognition technology will be used for medical workers to improve security.


    "Authorised personnel can automatically gain access to buildings, labs, and other rooms through a facial recognition access control system.Unlike other access control systems that require some kind of contact -- fingerprint, pass, etc -- the face recognition system allows contact-free entry to help reduce the risk of infection."
    SK Telecom and the Yonsei University Health System will continue to apply innovative 5G-based hospital solutions to the Yongin Severance Hospital and then to all hospitals under the Yonsei University Health System.




    Regarding augmented and virtual reality these are key areas of focus for the operator. Using augmented reality technology, the large fire-breathing dragon was streamed flying around the SK Happy Dream Park during the opening day of the Korea Baseball Organization.

    The dragon was streamed both to the LED baseball scoreboard installed at the stadium and via sports broadcasting channels for fans watching the game on TV and smartphones.

    To achieve large scale augmented reality streaming, SK Telecom used its self-developed augmented and virtual reality technologies including the eSpace and T real Platform solutions.

    The demonstration arose from SK Telecom's focus on the development of 5G-based services to support its commercial network, which launched in December last year.



    Another major way SK Telecom want to incorporate this new technology into everyday life is through 5G-powered offices.

    One such technology applied to the 5G smart office is a “5G walking-through system,” where people can pass through the entrance via face recognition. Employees had been required to carry identification tags to get through security at the entrance.
    Workers are also able to convene remote conferences similar to those seen in sci-fi movies. While not as advanced as creating holograms in the real world, attendees could talk to each other’s avatars in cyberspace.

    The telecom company said it established the smart systems at its office in Seoul and has been operating it as a test bed. It plans to develop and specify business models in cooperation with cloud service providers as well as hardware and software partners.
    SK Telecom said it installed IoT sensors at places such as ceilings and corridors of the office to collect information on temperature, brightness and humidity. Such information is delivered to servers in real time, and air conditioners and other devices are controlled automatically.

    The 5G virtual desktop infrastructure (VID) docking system enables to workers to do their work even if they do not have a laptop or PC by connecting their smartphones to the docking pad. "T real telepresence" is a system combining VR and AR technologies, enabling workers at different locations to have a meeting and watch visual materials together though simultaneous log-ins. The 5G cafeteria offers an unmanned vending machine powered by AI technology as well as a barista robot.


    In fact the South Korea’s government recently announced that it expects its robot industry to grow to 15 trillion won ($12.6 billion) by 2023, from 5.7 trillion won in 2018. On March 21 it said supporting the industry is a key national goal. Some of the growth will come from the use of robots in elder care, medicine, and logistics, as well as in entertainment and other service industries.

    SK Telecom is making an AI speaker that will project holograms of K-pop stars and other celebrities. The technology is being developed for use in concerts and other performances. 

    “AI would become like friends that could be accessible anywhere and anytime,” says Cho Ikhwan, a leader of the augmented-reality and virtual-reality development team at SK Telecom. “It’s a totally new experience to feel AI robots come alive.”

    In the Brooklyn 5G Summit Recently, Mr. Jong Kwan Park, SK Telecom, gives a snapshot of the Korean 5G customer and the achievements of the company regarding its 5G journey and deployment specifications. The talk is embedded below:



    Further reading on SK Telecom:

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