"South Korea Must Focus on B2B to Maintain 5G Leadership: SKT Hosts Technology Seminar"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] It has been pointed out that for Korea, which succeeded in the world's first commercialization of 5G, to continue its 5G leadership, it is important to secure a 5G business-to-business (B2B) business model that can lead the market along with continuous technological development. The 28GHz band and SA (Standalone mode) scheduled for the second half of the year are also evaluated as suitable for use in B2B specialized services.

Technology Seminar Presents the Path Forward for Global 5G

SK Telecom announced on the 23rd that it held an online '5G Technology Seminar' to share the current status and vision of 5G technology with domestic and international ecosystem and academic experts. The '5G Technology Seminar' was organized under the theme '5G Technologies for Today & Tomorrow' to help understand the current status of 5G technology and commercialization and to explore the vision and plans for leading 5G continuously in the future.

During the seminar, in the context of intensifying global 5G dominance competition, in-depth discussions were held on Korea's level of 5G and the challenges to strengthen competitiveness going forward.

First, Ross O'Brien, editor of the MIT Technology Review, predicted that "new growth revenue through 5G will grow by 11% annually worldwide." Alex Choi, Vice President of Deutsche Telekom, said, "Korea's 5G achievements are special globally," and introduced commercialization trends of overseas operators mainly in the U.S. and Europe.

At SK Telecom, Jongkwan Park, Head of the 5GX Technology Group, Junghwan Ryu, Head of the 5GX Infra Group, and Kangwon Lee, Head of the 5GX Cloud Labs, introduced the current status and plans of domestic 5G technology development, providing an opportunity to gauge Korea's 5G level compared to overseas.

Group Head Park Jongkwan said regarding 5G standards, "SK Telecom is actively participating in 3GPP standardization meetings as well as continuously cooperating with global telecom operators and equipment and terminal manufacturers," adding, "We are striving to lead 5G commercialization standards and secure related technologies." He also explained that in the MEC (Mobile Edge Computing) field, SK Telecom has launched a 'Global MEC TF' with telecom companies belonging to the Asia-Pacific telecom alliance 'Bridge Alliance,' establishing a global ultra-cooperation system.

He also introduced various efforts to upgrade the quality of existing 3.5GHz-based 5G. These include ▲ EN-DC (E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity) technology that combines 5G and LTE to increase speed ▲ 'Layer Splitter,' a 5G in-building dedicated equipment developed and deployed for the first time worldwide last August ▲ '5G/4G Dual Mode RF Repeater,' equipment that amplifies and diffuses 5G and LTE signals from outdoor base stations to indoor areas where signals are hard to reach to expand coverage ▲ AI network management system 'TANGO' solution.

SKT: "28GHz and SA Will Be Applied to B2B First"

SK Telecom plans to expand coverage mainly based on the 3.5GHz band NSA (Non-Standalone) method while providing optimal networks tailored to individual service characteristics through the 28GHz band and SA (Standalone) technology secured in the first half of this year. Unlike existing 5G services that run 4G and 5G in parallel, 5G SA supports only 5G, thus providing higher quality. Also, the 28GHz band, which secures bandwidth ten times wider than the 3.5GHz band, is considered essential infrastructure to realize the Fourth Industrial Revolution era, such as smart factories and smart cities.

Group Head Junghwan Ryu explained, "Considering the radio wave characteristics and technical methods, 28GHz and SA are suitable for use in B2B specialized services in terms of speed, stability, and perceived quality." Due to the radio wave characteristics of the 28GHz frequency, signal loss is significant even in everyday situations, resulting in service coverage being only about 10-15% compared to 3.5GHz, making it suitable for B2B-centered use.

He also added about SA, "Although it supports 5G characteristics such as network slicing technology, in the early stages, it has the advantage of the current NSA method that combines LTE to achieve fast speeds, so like 28GHz, it is suitable to be used mainly for B2B." Network slicing refers to a technology that separates the network into physical and virtual networks to provide customized traffic quality for each service.

Group Head Ryu emphasized, "With the confirmation of the 5G SA standard 'Release 16' last July, the 5G evolution roadmap has been established, so securing a 5G B2B business model that can lead the market is key."

Various discussions also emerged from the industrial ecosystem and academia. Samsung Electronics Fellow Juho Lee and LG Electronics Senior Researcher Youngwoo Yoon, who play key roles in international 5G standardization, presented on mobile communication evolution and 5G standardization status. They agreed that Korea is leading the commercialization and expansion of technologies defined in the 5G standard and emphasized that continuous technological development and ecosystem cooperation are important for Korea to maintain 5G leadership.

During the panel discussion moderated by Professor Inki Hong of Kyung Hee University, Professor Donggu Kim of Yonsei University, Samsung Electronics Fellow Juho Lee, ETRI Director Ilkyu Kim, and SK Telecom 5GX Technology Group Head Jongkwan Park diagnosed the current state of 5G technology and discussed the direction to move forward in the future.

Kim Yoon, CTO of SK Telecom, said, "We held the seminar inviting domestic and international experts to discuss the future direction beyond the world's first 5G to aiming for the world's best," adding, "Since 5G is a core infrastructure for the post-COVID era's expansion of non-face-to-face services and the Digital New Deal, we will strive not only for quality and technological evolution but also to create a new service ecosystem where 5G, AI, and Cloud converge together with global partners."