KT announced plans to invest $20.4 billion in 5G and other technologies within the next five years
Korean carrier KT has opened a 5G lab to promote industrial collaborations in the 5G field with local and global business partners.
KT’s 5G Open Lab, which is located at the company’s Research and Development (R&D) center near Seoul, is aimed at developing innovative services using 5G wireless technology.
Earlier this week, KT Group unveiled a plan to invest a total of 23 trillion won ($20.4 billion) over the next five years in 5G and other innovative technologies.
The 5G Open Lab has three collaborative spaces — Infra Zone, Media Zone and Smart-X Zone — as well as an exhibition room. The Korean carrier said any enterprise interested in the development of 5G services may use the lab to plan, test and verify services. Enterprises can experience various new 5G corporate services and solutions in the showroom, the Asian telco said.
Infra Zone is dedicated to both the development and testing of 5G-related infrastructure and virtualization technologies; Media Zone will be used for the development of augmented/virtual reality and other 5G immersive media and entertainment services, while the Smart-X Zone has been created for the development and testing of application services related to the internet of things.
The 5G Open Lab will be expanded and relocated by the end of this year to Pangyo, one of the country’s newest smart cities. The expansion will allow the lab to accommodate more startups and corporate partners.
Also this week, KT unveiled a major plan to focus on five different areas, including smart cities, smart factories, connected cars, 5G media and the 5G cloud, with the goal of providing innovative next-generation services for mobile users.
KT previously announced plans to launch its commercial 5G network by March 2019. The operator’s 5G rollout will not be based on the Fixed Wireless Access strategy currently being pushed forward by U.S. telco Verizon. Korea’s second largest telco had previously completed a 5G trial during the Winter Olympics Games, which took place in the city of PyeongChang in February.
During the PyeongChang Games, KT Corp. provided five 5G-driven visual technologies — sync view, interactive time slice, 360-degree virtual reality live broadcasting, omni-point view and a 5G connected bus.
South Korea’s three major mobile operators – SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus – are expected to announce their 5G network equipment suppliers during September, Korea Times has reported.
The three telcos are in the last phase of testing 5G network equipment from a variety of vendors including Samsung, Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei.
