SEOUL, KOREA - SK Telecom(NYSE:SKM) today announced that it started expanding installation of base stations to use 10MHz bandwidth from 2.1GHz band for LTE from May 7 in certain areas in Seoul, Gwangju and Busan. The company already built an LTE test-bed for 2.1GHz band in Busan last February.
Building 2.1GHz LTE base stations, SK Telecom lays a solid foundation to realize 3 band LTE-Advanced, the technology successfully developed by the company last January for the first time in the world. Notably, using a combined 40MHz bandwidth (downlink) from 800MHz, 1.8GHz and 2.1GHz bands, the 3 band LTE-Advanced network will enable customers to enjoy LTE services at speeds of up to 300Mbps.
SK Telecom will apply software package for 3 band LTE-Advanced to base stations before the launch of handsets, with which the company will become fully prepared for the service. Industry experts expect the handsets to come to market by the end of the year.
Until the capable handsets are released, the company will apply 3 band Multi Carrier (MC) technology for its LTE services. The tri-band MC technology offers better data speeds by properly distributing data traffic to three different frequency bands in a heavily congested area.
Lee Jong-bong, Executive Vice President and Head of Network Division said, “Keeping pace with the fast-evolving network technology, SK Telecom is committed to provide unrivalled services to our customers with the fastest and yet the most stable LTE.”
