Olympics 5G preview ahead of KT plans for commercialization in 2019
Intel has announced a collaboration with South Korean telecoms group KT Corporation to develop a 5G showcase at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang 2018.
During the games, KT and Intel will deliver the first broad-scale 5G network to enable a series of immersive on-site experiences, the chipmaker said.
“The upcoming Winter Olympic Games will offer a preview of our 5G future. Our joint activations will give visitors a unique opportunity to experience 5G technologies,” said Sandra Rivera, senior vice president and general manager of the network platforms group at Intel Corporation. “And they will highlight Intel’s unique 5G strengths across the network, client and cloud – the foundation for a massive new wave of connected devices and data. For 5G to become reality, all these elements need to come together into a powerful end-to-end 5G solution.”
“This 5G experience will be underpinned by powerful edge and core network computing capabilities powered by Intel high-performance processors,” the executive added.
At PyeongChang 2018, Intel, KT and additional ecosystem collaborators will deliver a 5G showcase in Gangneung Olympic Park, and in Gwanghwamoon, Seoul and at other Olympic venues across Korea.
In addition, the company said there will be 5G experiences made possible by the Intel 5G mobile trial platform and 5G network technologies (including FlexRAN) that will be activated on the 5G network at a variety of Olympic locations.
KT confirmed plans to launch commercial 5G services in 2019, the company’s SVP of network strategy, YongGyoo Lee, recently said during a keynote presentation at Qualcomm’s 4G/5G Summit, which took place in Hong Kong earlier this month.
The executive said that KT’s 5G deployment plans initially stipulates the use of 28GHz for hotspot-urban and 3.5GHz for urban and rural areas. Through the utilization of these spectrum, KT will be in a position to cover a wide range of use cases such as smart cities, 4K/8K cameras, remote medical services, drones, smart factories and public safety, Lee said.
The executive added that the telco will provide 5G services through a service trial in the city of PyeongChang, which will host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.
