Korea’s largest telecommunications firm KT said Monday it would form an alliance with global mobile carriers and network equipment makers to take the lead in setting up standards for the next-generation network, or 5G.

The Korean network operator said it has agreed with Japanese mobile carrier NTT Docomo, U.S. mobile network operator Verizon and SK Telecom of Korea to establish the 5G Trial Specification Alliance, aimed at cooperating to develop systems and platforms for test services of the 5G network from 2016 through 2018.

According to KT, the alliance’s members will conduct a series of tests to verify the advantages and demerits of frequency bands of 6 GHz and above, and set global 5G network standards. Trail 5G services are expected to be deployed during the 2018 PyongChang Winter Olympics.

KT, the official network service provider of the international winter sports competition, said earlier this month that the construction of its 5G wireless network platforms, which can serve up to 250,000 devices at the same time, will be completed by the end of the year, with plans to start 5G services in 2017.

Seo Chang-seok, the head of KT’s network strategy, said in a statement that “the company hopes to become the world’s first leading mobile network operator to start 5G services.”

KT is expected to go head-to-head with its compatriot rival SKT in showcasing the world’s first 5G network services during the Mobile World Congress trade show, which kicked off in Barcelona on Monday (local time).

The mobile carrier will introduce data transmission technology with network speeds of 25 gigabits per second at the annual mobile fair. It will also hold a high-definition video conference utilizing an advanced traffic control solution, dubbed fiber-to-the-antenna technology.

(wone0102@heraldcorp.com)