Seoul, Korea - April 1, 2016 - SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) today announced that it, together with Samsung Electronics, had successfully tested its 5G system at 28 GHz in the outdoor environment. 5G Millimeter Wave* technologies applied to the test include transmitter, receiver and antenna technologies designed to effectively transmit radio signals in the 28GHz band, as well as 3D beamforming**, which is the key technology that compensates radio propagation path loss in the higher frequency bands caused by the short wavelengths of millimeter waves and high atmospheric attenuation.
*Millimeter wave occupy the frequency spectrums from 30 to 300GHz. They have short wavelengths that range from 1 millimeter to 10 millimeters. Currently in the field of mobile telecommunications, millimeter waves generally refer to 6GHz or higher frequency bands.
** 3D beamforming is a technique that improves the system performance by steering the antenna beam in both horizontal and vertical domains for a clear propagation path to the targeted user.
SK Telecom and Samsung Electronics built the millimeter wave 5G system in the end of August 2015, and have been conducting field tests using outdoor 5G base stations and a vehicle equipped with a 5G test handset since October 2015 to measure and analyze service quality in the field - i.e. service coverage, transmission speed, latency and radio wave/signal strength.
SK Telecom said that the test results will be an important asset for building an enhanced 5G system, including its 5G pilot networks to be built within the end of this year.
Meanwhile, SK Telecom began developing 5G specifications since last year to build 5G trial services, and has already completed its development in March 2016. Going forward, the company plans to discuss specifications for 5G trial services at the 5G Open Trial Specification Alliance.
The company has also published its 5G White Paper in 2014 and its guidelines for 5G architecture design and implementation in 2015 to contribute to the development 5G requirements and standards.
"This 5G field trial is one of the key milestones for the world's first 5G commercialization," said Cheun Kyung-whoon, Executive Vice President and Head of Communications Research Team, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics. "Samsung will prove the feasibility of key technologies with SK Telecom. This strategic collaboration will lead to the early adoption of 5G communications and provision of immersive service experience to end-users."
"Building on its extensive experience and capabilities acquired over the last three decades in the field of mobile telecommunications, SK Telecom is set to maintain its leadership in the 5G era by leading the development of 5G technologies and services," Park Jin-hyo, Senior Vice President and Head of Network Technology R&D Center of SK Telecom. "And with the successful field test of a 28GHz millimeter wave 5G system, SK Telecom moves one important step closer to achieving the world’s first commercialization of 5G."
About SK Telecom
SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM, KSE: 017670), established in 1984, is Korea’s largest telecommunications company with more than 26 million mobile subscribers, accounting for around 50% of the market. The company reached KRW 17.137 trillion in revenue in 2015. As the world’s first company to commercialize CDMA, CDMA 2000 1x, CDMA EV-DO and HSDPA networks, SK Telecom launched the nation’s first LTE service in July 2011. SK Telecom also became the world’s first mobile carrier to commercialize 150Mbps LTE-Advanced in June 2013 and 225Mbps LTE-Advanced in June 2014 through Carrier Aggregation(CA). In line with its efforts to swiftly move towards the next-generation mobile network system, or 5G, it successfully commercialized 300Mbps tri-band LTE-A CA. As of the end of December 2015, the company has over 18.98 million LTE and LTE-Advanced subscribers. Based on its strength in network operations business, SK Telecom is seeking new growth engines through three innovative platforms namely Lifestyle Enhancement Platform, Advanced Media Platform and IoT Service Platform. For more information, please visit www.sktelecom.com or email to skt_press@sk.com .
About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies that redefine the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, cameras, digital appliances, printers, medical equipment, network systems, and semiconductor and LED solutions. We are also leading in the Internet of Things space with the open platform SmartThings, our broad range of smart devices, and through proactive cross-industry collaboration. We employ 319,000 people across 84 countries with annual sales of US $196 billion. To discover more, and for the latest news, feature articles and press material, please visit the Samsung Newsroom at news.samsung.com .