The Korea Herald

지나쌤

SKT forges 5G alliance in Asia-Pacific region

By Shim Woo-hyun

Published : Jan. 14, 2020 - 10:25

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SK Telecom said Monday it has initiated a group of multinational mobile carriers to cooperate on the development of a pan-national 5G network environment in the Asia-Pacific region.

Lee Kang-won, head of SK Telecom’s Cloud Labs, explains the company’s MEC technology at its headquarters in Seoul, Monday (SK Telecom) Lee Kang-won, head of SK Telecom’s Cloud Labs, explains the company’s MEC technology at its headquarters in Seoul, Monday (SK Telecom)

The six entities joining the group -- titled Bridge Alliance -- include South Korea’s SKT, Singapore Telecommunications, Hong Kong Telecom, PCCW, Globe Telecom Philippines and Taiwan Mobile.

The South Korean mobile carrier’s recent initiative comes as part of its efforts to take the lead in multiaccess edge computing (MEC) technology for 5G networks.

SKT currently plans to offer support to other Asian mobile carriers to apply its MEC solution, when they install 5G networks. The companies will later cooperate to develop services that are compatible with their own networks.

MEC is a network architecture concept that enables them to analyze, process, and store data, instead of sending it to a centralized cloud system. The technology generally reduces latency and increases connection speeds, which are necessary for cloud gaming, smart factories and self-driving vehicles.

The first group meeting with take place from Jan. 13-15 at its headquarters in Seoul. SKT plans to share MEC-based smart factory cases and introduce its 5G cluster installed at Lol Park.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)