SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) today held a ceremony to declare the launch of Korea’s first commercial LTE service, thereby opening the 4G era in full swing. 

In April 2011, the company held a 4G LTE network demonstration for the first time in Korea at its Bundang Building’s LTE Test-bed to showcase its advanced LTE technology by comparing speeds of 4G LTE and 3G WCDMA; showing LTE-based 3D video streaming and high definition video content download/ streaming; and demonstrating high definition video call between two handsets, one located in a moving bus and the other in the Bundang Building.

LTE is a next-generation network that enables ultra high-speed data service by providing maximum downlink speed of 75Mbps, which is five times faster than that of 3G WCDMA network (HSUPA) and maximum downlink speed of 37.5Mbps, which is seven times faster than that of 3G WCDMA, and even 1.9 times faster than Wibro that provides maximum downlink speed of 39.8Mbps and maximum uplink speed of 10Mbps.
※ LTE : One-Way 10MHz spectrum, Wibro : Wave Ⅱ

The declaration ceremony, held at Lotte Hotel, was attended by 200 executives from both private and public sector including So Jin-Woo, President of Platform Business at SK Telecom, Han Sun-Kyo, assistant administrator of the Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting and Communications Committee at the National Assembly, and Kim Choong-Sik, Standing Commissioner at Korea Communications Commission.

■ Realizing the best call quality through flawless network coverage and strong technological capability

As LTE’s success will be largely determined by call quality in the beginning of the service provision, SK Telecom said that it completed deploying LTE networks in Seoul by building 1772 Radio Units (RU) and 609 Digital Units (DU). In addition to this, the company will also use its 200,000 existing 800MHz repeaters to offer seamless and flawless 4G LTE service in all areas of Seoul, including underground and indoor areas.

※ LTE base station is divided into Digital Unit(DU) that handles data and Radio Unit(RU), which act as antenna

SK Telecom said that, as it uses 800MHz for its LTE service, it will allow users to experience a service of a different level, fully leveraging its capability and knowhow in network deployment and operation, 800MHz band in particular, accumulated over the last 28 years since it launched the first 1G analogue mobile service in Korea.

Starting with LTE commercialization in Seoul on 1 July, the company plans to complete LTE roll-out in 23 cities including the Seoul Metropolitan area and six metropolitan cities by early next year, and secure national coverage (82 cities) by 2013. SK Telecom also said that the national coverage could become a reality earlier than planned depending on the market situation. Moreover, the company expects to introduce LTE-Advanced, the download speed of which reaches 1Gbps, in around 2013, by upgrading its LTE networks.
※ On 1 July, some areas of Ilsan will also be covered by LTE networks

With 4G LTE commercialization in Seoul, customers all across the nation will be able to experience stable high-speed wireless data service as SK Telecom is operating both 3G networks and 4G LTE networks. It will use 4G LTE networks to handle data traffic in Seoul and 3G networks for data in other areas.

SK Telecom was the Korea’s first to open mobile telecommunications era in 1984 with its analogue technology (1G). Then in 1996, it brought about the popularization of mobile telecommunications by commercializing CDMA technology (2G) for the first time in the world. The company adopted CDMA 2000 1X, ushering in the era of video telephony in 2000 and achieved world’s first commercialization of mobile phone-based 3G WCDMA (HSDPA) in 2006, thus opening the era of wireless data communications. As of April 2011, SK Telecom is offering HSPA+, the fastest 3G telecommunications technology it introduced in the second half of 2010, in 42 cities including Seoul.

■ Handling massive data traffic using cutting-edge technology like cloud network, CoMP and LTE femtocell

SK Telecom is committed to providing an unrivalled level of quality of service by leveraging its leading technology and network knowhow.

The company applied cloud network technology to its 4G LTE networks to flexibly and flawlessly handle wireless data demand that differ by time and region, and uses Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) technology for the first time in the world to prevent decline of data speed in coverage boundary areas. It will also develop and install data femtocells for LTE networks that can handle data in small areas, thereby securing seamless and stable in-building/underground coverage. 

SK Telecom expects to effectively cover massively increasing data traffic as LTE networks can handle three times more data compared to the existing WCDMA networks due to its greatly enhanced speed. The company projects that around 65% of total data traffic will be handled by LTE networks in 2014.

SK Telecom said that monthly data traffic recorded in June 2011 is 19 times that of August 2010 and the dramatic increase in data traffic will continue with the spread of smart devices.

■ Expecting 300,000 LTE subscribers by 2011 and 10 million by 2015

SK Telecom projects that its LTE service will attract around 300,000 users in the second half of 2011. Furthermore, buoyed by the release of LTE handsets in 2012 and national coverage by 2013, it expects to secure around 10 million users by 2015.

SK Telecom said that, as 4G LTE is chosen by majority of operators around the world, LTE will rapidly become widespread globally, realized through the rapid pace of LTE smartphone and tablet adoption, LTE equipment upgrades, and provision of diverse LTE-based services.

In addition the company announced plans to expand frequency bandwidth for LTE from one-way 5MHz (at the time of service launch) to 10MHz by the fourth quarter of 2011 and explained that its LTE networks will be fully capable of handling 300,000 customers by the end of 2011.

■ Releasing Korea’s first LTE smartphone in September and launching nine kinds of devices in total within the year-end

SK Telecom plans to introduce the first LTE smartphone in Korea in September and release five smartphone models in the second half of 2011 to allow customers to conveniently experience and benefit from 4G LTE networks.

SK Telecom will release two types of data modem – i.e. USB modem and router modem– on 1 July 2011. USB-type modem, developed by LG Electronics, allows customers to use LTE service by connecting the modem to the laptop USB port. Router-type modem, made by C-Motech, converts LTE signal to Wi-Fi signal to enable the use of LTE via existing smartphones and tablets.

Moreover, the company plans to launch Korea’s first LTE smartphones in early September to open the 4G era in full swing. LTE smartphone will be built with 4.5-inch (or bigger) LCD screen and 1.5GHz dual-core CPU. SK Telecom will later add HD display to focus on flawlessly supporting high-definition multimedia services. The company plans to release 9 different types of LTE devices – two types of LTE modems in July, five types of LTE smartphones from September and two types of tablet PCs from October - in 2011 to provide customers with the widest range of options.

Along with the launch of LTE modems, SK Telecom announced two new price plans for LTE service namely LTE Modem 35 (KRW 35,000 per month, 5GB data limit) and LTE Modem 49 (KRW 49,000 per month, 9GB data limit). For additional data usage (exceeding usage limit), customers will pay KRW 0.025 per packet (KRW 51.2 per MB), which is the same as 3G service. Price plans for LTE smartphones will be released upon the launch of LTE smartphones.

■ Opening a true ubiquitous era supported by ultra-high definition, high speed and multi-networking services

1. 4G LTE realizes ultra-high definition services

SK Telecom plans to launch ’Video Telephony Evolution (tentatively named),’ a high-quality video call service to be built in LTE smartphones, to allow users to experience eight times better image and two times higher voice quality while video calling. This is made possible through the outstanding data handling capability of LTE network that enhances the speed of a video call to from 64Kbps to over 500Kbps.

The company is also ready to release an evolved version of T Map, its navigation service in July. Named ’T Map Hot’, the service is made for pedestrians, offering high-definition maps that clearly show even small paths (or alleys) of key business areas; providing rankings of popular restaurants/cafés; and showing large-volume contents like photos.

Based on its 4G LTE networks, SK Telecom is committed to offering greater convenience and benefits for customers by developing and delivering diverse high-definition contents. T Store, highlighted as an unprecedented success story of an applications store run by a mobile carrier, offers some 10,000 high-definition video contents (1GB, 2hrs). In addition, ’Hoppin’, the first N-screen service in Korea released early this year, provides around 6,000 contents (movie/ drama/ music video), leading to the expectation that video content consumption over LTE networks will be greatly boosted. 

2. 4G LTE’s high transmission speed gives rise to a digital nomad lifestyle

SK Telecom projects that the introduction of 4G LTE networks will help realize a digital nomad lifestyle where people can use a wide variety of services regardless of place. Creation of a smart working environment; vitalization of smart learning including video education system; popularization of smart healthcare that offers convenient medical service regardless of place; and expansion of the use of mobile cloud are expected to be realized through high-speed 4G LTE networks.

With ’Smart Work,’ users can remotely access the intranet using mobile devices, review attached files and grant approvals while on the move. Here, a stable and fast telecommunication environment is a prerequisite for realizing this service. Supported by 4G LTE networks, Smart Work will become more appealing as it allows users to tackle tasks that involve transmission of large-volume data more conveniently and rapidly.

’Smart Learning’ is also expected to become a popular service when supported by LTE networks. It enables fast, seamless two-way communication between teachers and students as it reduces network latency while offering greater speed and capacity. SK Telecom will partner with educational institutes like Chungdam Learning and Daesung Academy to secure rich education contents and use T Store’s 10,000 education contents to offer an advanced mobile learning service.

LTE will also boost ’Smart Healthcare,’ a service that offers a differentiated, convenient medical service. Smart Healthcare provides real-time data of patients with chronic diseases to hospitals after collecting them. It also creates a database for patients to allow hospitals to use accumulated data when giving prescriptions. Moreover, upon approval from the regulatory body, LTE-based high-resolution video telephony is expected to boost remote medical services.

Mobile Cloud services are expected to rise with LTE networks. Mobile Cloud services, currently used for storage and transmission of small-volume data including photos, address book and text message, will provide greater customer convenience by handling large-volume data at a much higher speed. In September, SK Telecom plans to launch a new concept of cloud called ’T Cloud,’ which allows users to share personal contents and use N-screen service to enjoy real-time streaming on wanted device.

3. 4G LTE boosts multi-networking games

Multi-networking games, which require quick switch of screens and constant data transmission/ reception, are also expected to become widespread with LTE deployment. In particular, massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) like Lineage, real-time strategy games(RTS) including Starcraft, and first-person shooter games (FPS) like Sudden Attack and Counter Strike are projected to be actively played on mobile devices anywhere, including while on the go.

■ Implementing measures to protect SMEs with the aim to create a rich LTE ecosystem

As operators around the world are using LTE technology to build data-only networks, small base stations (or Remote Radio Unit, RRU), capable of handling data efficiently, are being built instead of repeaters that amplify voice signals. Therefore, looking ahead, the demand for re-peaters will gradually decrease as they cannot effectively handle data traffic.

Faced with this situation, SK Telecom’s equipment vendors, through discussions with SK Tele-com, agreed to buy a certain percentage of RU equipment from Korean SMEs that produce repeaters. Furthermore, SK Telecom will actively encourage the development of LTE-based mobile services and contents through its Open Innovation Center.