SK Telecom said Sunday that it will hold a five-day conference in Seoul to discuss next-generation mobile networks with 13 other global mobile service providers beginning on Monday.

Organizer SKT, the country’s top mobile carrier, said the meeting will be held in two different sessions ― an operating committee meeting and partner forum ― with about 20 mobile makers participating from around the world.

The theme of the conference will be the successful development and commercialization of the fourth generation network communications technology Long Term Evolution as well as LTE-Advanced.

The international panel named Next Generation Mobile Networks is a group that develops a list of requirements involving the technical standard and wireless broadband spectrum for next-generation networks and works to have them reflected through other organizations such as device manufacturers.

Established in August 2006, a total of 59 partner firms, including telecoms, electronics firms and those in the academia, are taking part in the organization.

Participants of the conference are representatives from AT&T, Bell Canada, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, KPN, KT Corp., NTT Docomo, France Telecom-Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Telstra and Vodafone, according to SKT officials.

During the conference, SKT plans to feature the company-developed hybrid network, which was shown for the first time last month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, its officials said.

The firm also expects to lead talks on efficient ways to provide voice calls on LTE networks and about the next-generation base stations that are based on cloud technology, said company officials.

“We’ve high expectations that the meeting will give us a chance to cooperate with the smaller firms in the country and enable us to join hands to dive into global markets,” said SKT’s chief technology officer Byun Jae-wan.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)