Verizon and SK Telecom announced they will collaborate on co-developing 5G specifications, thereby strengthening their existing 5G collaboration.
South Korean operator SK Telecom and U.S. operator Verizon have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at SK Telecom’s headquarters in Seoul to co-develop 5G specifications and conduct joint studies on 5G. The goal of the agreement is to turn the co-developed 5G specifications into global standards, the Telecom Times reports. The operators already collaborate on 5G specifications, having formed the 5G Open Trial Specifications Alliance in February 2016, a global initiative aiming to discuss 5G specifications and lead 5G standardization efforts. “This MoU will further strengthen and deepen our collaboration with Verizon,” said Alex Jinsung Choi, chief technology officer and head of corporate R&D Center of SK Telecom. “Through joint studies and researches, SK Telecom and Verizon will develop 5G technical specifications and innovative use cases to move up the commercialization of/usher in the new era of/lead the era of 5G,” he added, as reported by Telecom Times. Roger Gurnani, executive vice president and chief information and technology architect of Verizon said: “The signing of this MoU reflects our combined effort to advance the 5G ecosystem and drive technical development towards global commercialization of 5G technologies.”
As part of the agreement, SK Telecom and Verizon have also agreed to strengthen their cooperation in the Open Compute Project (OCP) and the Mobile Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter (M-Cord). The OCP is a collaborative industry initiative aimed at redesigning hardware technology to efficiently support the growing demands on compute infrastructure. It counts representatives from Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Intel and Rackspace Hosting on its board of directors. Cord’s goal is for its part to bring cloud economies and agility to the telco central office. Both SK Telecom and Verizon sit on M-Cord’s technical steering committee.
IIoT News Recap: BMW to launch self-driving cars in China in five years; South Korea to build smart city in Cambodia; Apple files patent for heart-monitoring wearable
Autonomous driving: BMW to launch self-driving cars in China in five years
BMW said, speaking at a summit on artificial intelligence and robotics in China, that the automaker was planning to launch self-driving vehicles in China in five years, BMWBlog reports.
Smart city: South Korea to build smart city in Cambodia
South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with its Cambodian counterpart this coming Tuesday to develop a smart city in the deep-sea port province of Sihanoukville, the Korea Herald reports. “South Korea’s experience in using ICT to resolve urban area problems will help Cambodia’s efforts to deal with reckless development near Sihanoukville,” a ministry official said.
Wearables: Apple files patent for heart-monitoring wearable
Apple has filed a patent application by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a wearable device that can measure electrocardiographic (ECG) signals through a series of sensors, Quartz reports.
