Mercury Selected as Supplier for 'Subway Wi-Fi 6E' Utilizing 28GHz 5G Network

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] Mercury, a specialized information and communication equipment company, announced on the 12th that it has been selected as the supplier of ‘Subway Car Wi-Fi 6E’ utilizing the subway 28GHz 5G network. Mercury was chosen as the supplier of subway Wi-Fi 6E equipment in the recent ‘5G 28GHz Subway WiFi AP Purchase’ bid conducted by KT.

Wi-Fi 6E is the next expansion standard of Wi-Fi 6 that allows Wi-Fi functionality to be used not only in the currently supported 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands but also in the 6GHz band.

High-speed Wi-Fi service using the 5th generation (5G) network 28GHz frequency is scheduled to be serviced on the main lines of the Seoul subway by the end of the year. With the selection of this equipment supplier, the domestic Wi-Fi 6 market is expected to fully transition to Wi-Fi 6E equipment, and Mercury is expected to firmly establish itself as a leading company not only in the Wi-Fi 6 market but also in the Wi-Fi 6E market through this project.

In December last year, the Ministry of Science and ICT finalized a plan to raise the output standards of the 6GHz band to enable the use of Wi-Fi 6E inside subway cars and conducted a ‘5G 28GHz Utilization Subway Wi-Fi Performance Improvement Demonstration.’ It also announced plans to expand the main lines of the Seoul subway in cooperation with the three major telecommunications companies.

As a result of the Wi-Fi performance improvement demonstration conducted last year by the three major telecommunications companies on the Seongsu branch line of Subway Line 2, Wi-Fi speed improved approximately tenfold from the existing (LTE Wi-Fi) 71.05Mbps to an average of 700Mbps in the demonstration (5G 28GHz Wi-Fi).

Meanwhile, last month, the 20th Presidential Transition Committee established a ‘Next-Generation Network Development Strategy,’ identifying as a key task the construction of subway Wi-Fi based on 5G (including 28GHz) to provide speeds ten times faster than currently available, in response to the rapid increase in data usage by the public.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.