The LoRaWAN network will be initially available in the city of Daegu
South Korean telecoms operator SK Telecom and compatriot firm Samsung will deploy a nationwide LoRaWAN network for the provision of Internet of Things (IoT) services.
The two companies said the low power wide area network will be deployed using the 900 MHz band. SK Telecom plans to launch commercial services over the network in the city of Daegu in June, and expand the launch nationwide by mid-year.
Daegu, Korea’s fourth largest city, will serve as a test bed for the LoRaWAN network
SK Telecom said that it plans to focus on setting up infrastructure for renewable energy projects, cloud-based platforms and big data for healthcare and medical services, as well as electric vehicle infrastructure for autonomous cars.
The Korean telco also plans to adopt a new service model it calls the Internet of Small Things for the network services, which focuses on applications for devices that transmit small volumes of data at very slow speeds of below 5kbps.
“With the early deployment of a nationwide IoT network, SK Telecom will be able to maintain its position as pioneer in the field of telecommunications,” SK Telecom head of infrastructure Lee Jong-bong said.
“SK Telecom will continue to work closely with partners including Samsung to deliver new value and convenience to both individual and enterprise customers over the IoT network,” the executive added.
In March, SK Telecom said it will invest over KRW100 billion ($84 million) in IoT projects over the next two years.
SK Telecom launched LTE service in July 2011, commercialized 150-megabit per second updates in June 2013 and 225 Mbps LTE-Advanced services in June 2014 through carrier aggregation. The Asian telco also launched 300 Mbps tri-band LTE-A capabilities in mid-2015.
Huawei completes 5G tests in Chendu
In other APAC news, Chinese vendor Huawei said it has completed the first phase of 5G technology tests as a part of a series field trials defined by the IMT-2020 5G Promotion Group. The outdoor macro-cell tests, conducted in Chendu, China, last month, included a number of the foundational key enabling technologies and an integrated 5G air-interface. The test results successfully demonstrated that the new 5G air interface technology can effectively improve spectrum efficiency and to meet diverse service requirements for 5G defined by ITU-R.
Launched by the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology (CAICT), the IMT-2020 5G Promotion Group aims to foster a joint effort to promote 5G technology evaluation and field test among the global mobile industry and ecosystem to ensure the successful commercial deployment by 2020.
Early this year, the IMT-2020 5G Promotion Group announced a three phase 5G networks trial plan, spanning from 2016 to 2018, with a first phase test from September 2015 to September 2016. The first phase test is focused on key radio technologies and performance test.
