n 2020 Mr. Do Min-jun (37) is in New York for a 3-day business trip. He married Ms. Na Young-sim 7 years ago and has one cute daughter named Mina (7).
Mr. Do arrives at the hotel which he reserved while riding a taxi from airport. After checking in, while he is walking to the room, his phone rings. Right after he puts his device in his palm, a 3D hologram pops up; his wife says Mina has just visited a local clinic due to a fever of almost 40 degrees but she is still unwell. He makes an appointment with s pediatrician at the closest university hospital to his home after searching via his 3D hologram mobile phone.
This is what communication would look like in 2020, the 5G era. Will we really experience what we have only seen in SF films before by 2020 The era of having a communication via a 3D hologram mobile device is coming. In 2020, the commercialization of 5G will allow us to enjoy giga-speed mobile communications technologies. Users will be able to download one ultra definition movie in just 1 second thanks to the ever-developing mobile technologies.
Korea will have the world's attention for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games where the country's breakthrough 5G mobile communications technologies will be demonstrated. The next-generation 5G works at the ultra-high 28 GHz frequency unlike 4G which runs at about 2 GHz. While it takes one and a quarter minutes for one 800MB movie to be downloaded via 4G network, it takes just one second for a ultra definition movie via 5G.
In 1998 Korea successfully hosted the Seoul Olympics. Now in 2018 it plans to revive its glory with the Pyeongchang Games which will also be 'the world's first 5G Olympics' where the country will introduce a giga-speed mobile service as one of the world's IT leaders along with Europe and the U.S.. It will serve as Korea's golden opportunity to inform the world of the country's world's best mobile communications technologies.
The fierce competition for 5G is expected as Japan jumped into the market after Europe, China, and Korea. Facing the giga era, Korea's 3 major mobile operators, SK Telecom, kt, and LG Uplus, are making aggressive efforts for developing 5G technologies.
Aiming at the world's first 5G commercialization by 2020
The Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning announced 'Creative 5G Mobile Strategy’ at the 3rd Economic Ministerial Meeting on Jan. 22. It strives for 5G to be commercialized for the world for the first time by Dec. 2020 following offering a trial service for some technologies such as future SNS, mobile 3D imaging, UHD, hologram, etc. in 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
To this end it, in cooperation with the private sector, will invest about 1.6 trillion KRW in 5G-related R&D, technology standardization, etc. The ministry expects the commercialization of 5G to lead to the effects on production inducement (worth 552 trillion KRW) and added-value (144) in the equipment and service fields and creates 580,000 jobs domestically within 7 years.
Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) says the global and domestic markets for 5G expect to be valued at $2.3175 trillion (about 2100 trillion KRW) and $63.5 billion (68 trillion) in 2026 respectively.
Intense global competition in 5G market
Global competition accordingly will become fiercer for dominance of the 5G mobile communications market, future growth engine. The European Union (EU) officially established at the end of last year ‘5GPPP’, a group for 5G standardization, whose members include 24 communications equipment and IT firms such as Ericsson, Hwawei, and Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN). In China the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) have supported R&D programs through IMT-2020, a 5G consultative group, and future forum. Japan established '2020 and beyond ad hoc’ under a standardization organization and has focused on corporations' 5G related activities last September.
In the midst of such efforts by Europe, China, and Japan, Korea's mobile operators are making strenuous efforts to dominate the market.
SK Telecom reveals its audacious plans to be the world's first operator to open the era of 5G by 2020. It will focus on not only the development of the entire ICT ecosystem including hardware, platform, and service but also the convergence with several other industries beyond just a simple network technology advancement.
It plans to accelerate the construction of the 5G network as a genuine ‘ICT-nomics’ will be achieved with an ultra-speed, ultra-connected network in place.
The company will demonstrate its 5G at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and do its best to become the world's first 5G mobile operators.
To this end, it will lead 3 Band LTE-A, frequency band technology, make sharp the relevant technologies like personal micro cell, network virtualization, and intellectualization, It will organically cooperate with international and domestic standardization organizations such as the 5G forum and 3GPP.
SK Telecom announced it established the MOU with Stockholm-based Ericsson, global communications technology and service firm, for joint research on 5G.
The two have researched and developed together the core technologies likely to be the standard for the next-generation 5G network era.
KT plans to use all its accumulated communications service capabilities and network technologies to lead the 5G market which will lead to the new digital ecosystem where all people and devices connected via network are producers as well as consumers of information.
Mr. Hwang Chang-kyu, CEO of kt, declared the vision of leading 'convergence giga-topia' based on giga-infrastructure. It has planned to invest 4.5 trillion KRW for the next 3 years to construct a wire-wireless integrated giga-infrastructure. The giga-Internet will offer a 10 and 3 times faster service than the existing system. It will also offer a double-network (LTE plus giga-WiFi) convergence technology and a copper wire based high-speed transmission one respectively.
KT plans to use all its accumulated communications service capabilities and network technologies to lead the 5G market which will lead to the new digital ecosystem where all people and devices connected via network are producers as well as consumers of information.
It will offer smarter and more user friendly services by converging its best several network technologies such as intelligent wire-wireless convergence network based on a open platform, ultra wideband/frequency efficiency technology, and double-network combined technology (HetNet).
The company has organized teams like the 'future convergence strategy team' and 'convergence technology team' aimed at the business strategy establishment, R&D, and commercialization of the people-oriented convergence service.
KT will continue to put forth efforts on the R&D of 5G's core source technologies in the long term and also offer 'convergence-social network service', a new convergence of virtualized radio station and mobile cloud, where customers are able to experience future communications.
It focuses on developing a giga mobile Internet service technology based on double-network frequency collection and ultra wideband expecting 1,000 times more data will be used in the 5G era.
LG Uplus is working together with Ericsson, global communications equipment firm to develop technologies. Last July Mr. Lee Sang-chul, vice president of LG Uplus, met with Mr. Hans Vestberg, CEO of Ericsson, at its Swedish headquarters and talked about their 5G joint technology development.
They will develop the technology of increasing speed by minimizing radio interference among base stations and cooperating in several areas such as LTE-A and next-generation ICT including healthcare, Machine to Machine (M2M), energy, TV media, etc.
Mr. Lee said, "our cooperation will lead to the global standard for LTE-A as well as 5G."
LG Uplus says, "a 5G leader is the one that has the capability of offering the best quality service by effectively using its own frequency, communications equipment, and network."
