SEOUL, KOREA- SK Telecom plans to launch broadband LTE services in Seoul within the year’s end and the remaining regions of the country by July 2014. The company held a press conference on September 5 at the Press Center in in downtown Seoul where it announced its broadband LTE service plan.SK Telecom said it will lead the next-generation network competition on the back of its LTE-A service that it launched in July 2013, plus the broadband LTE service. Broadband LTE uses a frequency bloc that is two times wider than existing frequency blocs, thereby offering 150 Mbps service, twice faster than existing LTE service.

To provide broadband LTE service, SK Telecom needs a 20-MHz bandwidth in one way. Korea’s No. 1 mobile telecom operator will provide the broadband LTE service by using 1.8-GHz band 35-MHz that it additionally acquired through a recent spectrum auction.

Unlike carrier aggregation-based LTE-A that can be used only through smartphones with an exclusive broadband LTE chip, the new broadband LTE can be used through existing LTE smartphones.