KT Chairman Calls for 5G Innovation for Future Prosperity - Seite 2

KT unveiled the world's first commercial 5G service on April 3. Hwang said the number of 5G subscribers has been increasing rapidly and changing the lifestyle of South Koreans. Behind this change is KT's pioneering endeavor to promote the next-generation technology throughout the nation.

At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015, KT was the first to present a vision for the future of 5G. At MWC 2017, the telecom giant announced its plan for 5G commercialization – also a world first. Hwang said that despite concerns by experts that commercial 5G service was premature, KT took up the challenge and succeeded in advancing the 5G era. Furthermore, the time needed for standardization of 5G was 21 months less than LTE, the fourth-generation technology.

KT first showcased its 5G innovation at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, with a trial 5G network. Since then, it has advocated the "power of 5G" and called on the international community to share its vision at a variety of forums, including the U.N. Global Compact, the World Economic Forum, the G20 Conference, Harvard Business School and MWC.

Six months after commercialization, Korea is leading the 5G global market in many ways. The number of 5G service subscribers, now nearing four million, is expected to surpass five million before year-end. Korea led internationally in essential 5G standard patents as of March 2019. Samsung Electronics emerged as the number one player in the 5G telecom equipment market with 37 percent market share from the fourth quarter of 2018 to the first quarter of 2019.

As to why 5G is needed, Hwang explained that its ultra-high speed, ultra-low latency and massive connectivity will create outsized changes in information and communication technology (ICT). In particular, 5G gains even greater importance when it comes to mission-critical services, such as telemedicine and automated driving.

KT has applied three technologies to optimize the power of 5G: Edge Cloud for minimizing latency, Network Slicing for providing customized services, and Connected Mobile Discontinuous Reception (C-DRX) for conserving battery power.

KT's edge-cloud architecture has led to the establishment of edge-computing telecom centers in major cities across the nation, lowering the 5G latency to a 5-millisecond level. Network slicing optimizes the network for divergent services and enhances security. C-DRX reduces battery power consumption by minimizing unnecessary data transmission with a traffic optimization solution. KT, which was the first in the world to apply this technology to a 5G network, has increased battery life by up to 65 percent.