Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
SKT, KT, LG U+ to boast 5G leadership at MWC
Seen is a mock-up of KT's booth at the Mobile World Congress tech fair, which will take place in Barcelona from Monday to Thursday. / Courtesy of KT
By Baek Byung-yeul
By Baek Byung-yeul
Korean telecom firms ― SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus ― will showcase their cutting-edge fifth-generation (5G) network technologies in front of over 107,000 attendees at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), which kicks off Monday in Barcelona.
The MWC is the world largest trade fair for the mobile industry. The four-day event will feature over 2,400 companies from across the world, the event organizer Global System for Mobile Communications Associations (GSMA) said.
With the three telecom firms set to offer 5G commercial services starting in March, they will bring the transformative power of the latest network connectivity technology to the MWC to pull ahead of competitors in the 5G race.
Chiefs of the three telecom firms will attend the MWC for conversations, agreement and contracts with information and communications technology (ICT) businesses, officials of the firms said.
In addition, device manufacturers Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics will also show off their latest smartphones at the fair.
The event organizer said the main theme of this year's event will be “intelligent connectivity,” a theme that covers a range of topics such as 5G, Industry 4.0, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution and immersive content via augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
Models play a VR racing game “KartRider VR,” which SK Telecom plans to showcase at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. / Courtesy of SK Telecom
SK Telecom, the largest mobile carrier here, will have a booth that occupies an area of 604 square meters. The firm said it will unveil a 5G Hyper Space platform, which allows visitors to experience a virtual reality world.
“Visitors wearing VR headsets can shop or make reservations at a restaurant in a VR shopping mall and hotel. They can also bring data made together with their co-workers in a virtual space to the real world,” the firm said.
KT, the second-largest mobile operator, has its promotional booth together with global firms Google, Huawei, Rakuten and Turkcell at the GSMA Innovation City joint booth.
With the theme of “5G becomes reality,” KT will showcase 5G-based disaster management technology, services for cars and 5G-based smart factory services such as AR glasses and 5G enabled robots.
“During the MWC, we will showcase the 5G Skyship, a 5G-based real time disaster relief airship platform. Visitors can experience how cameras on the airship flying in Korea can be controlled from the MWC booth in Barcelona using 5G networks,” KT said.
Hwang Chang-kyu, chairman of the firm, will deliver a keynote speech on the first day of the event, shedding light on KT's 5G technology and services. Hwang will also visit the promotional booths of global firms such as Samsung Electronics, Nokia and Ericsson to seek new businesses for the 5G services.
LG Uplus, the smallest mobile carrier, will set up a joint booth alongside LG Electronics. The firm will unveil remote-controlled robots, smart CCTV, and VR and AR content running on 5G.
LG Uplus said Ha Hyun-hwoi, CEO and vice chairman of the firm, will seek expanding partnerships using 5G service as he plans to meet executives from global mobile firms such as Verizon, T-Mobile and Vodafone as well as ICT firms such as Samsung and Nokia.
VR contents emerged as key for 5G transformation
The mobile carriers said they will focus on having conversations and winning contracts with global game and media contents providers during the MWC because enjoyable contents are essential to attract more consumers to the latest network connectivity technology.
“While phone makers are set to roll out their 5G enabled smartphones at the fair, it is important for telecom firms to have their own enjoyable contents to lure more customers to the 5G service,” an official of one of the three telecom firms said. “So they will go all out to secure game, media content at the MWC.”
SK Telecom said it signed a licensing agreement Tuesday with Nexon to use three of the game firm's popular games including “KartRider,” “Crazy Arcade” and “Bubble Fighter.”
Among the three titles, the firm said it will launch the KartRider VR racing game for 5G smartphones within the first half of the year. At the MWC, the firm added it will continue to work with game companies both at home and abroad to expand its VR game lineups.
“On the occasion of the launch of 5G smartphones by phone makers, we are cooperating with global firms to secure content. This is an effort to distinguish ourselves from other mobile operators,” an SK Telecom official said.
While SK Telecom is focusing on a racing game, KT said it will showcase VR-based sports games at the MWC.
KT said it developed VR sports games including baseball, table tennis and badminton in cooperation with local VR content developer Appnori. The games will be available through the firm's GiGA Live TV. KT launched the wireless network-based media service in November 2018.
“During the show, we will showcase a VR baseball game that multiple users can enjoy at the same time. Visitors to the KT booth at the MWC can enjoy the multiplayer baseball game,” KT said.
LG Uplus is set to unveil 5G-enabled AR and VR content. “We will unveil 5G-enabled professional baseball and golf games and idol content that offers K-pop artists' live performances,” the firm said.
Samsung to broadcast MWC events over 5G network
In addition to showing off its new mobile devices, Samsung is also set to boast its cutting-edge 5G technologies providing its network equipment for broadcasting the events.
The firm said Tuesday it will conduct a 5G network-based broadcast during the tech fair in cooperation with the GSMA, the organizer of the fair.
Using its 5G radio base stations and routers, the firm will provide the live broadcast to the Fira Gran Via, the main exhibition center of the trade show and 280 hotels in Barcelona. The firm added the event will also be broadcast live around the world over the internet.
Replacing the traditional optical fiber cable, Samsung 5G network equipment has enabled the organizer to broadcast the event with a high-definition (HD) quality video without latency to viewers from all over the world online, the firm explained.
“Samsung is offering a glimpse of the possibility of the future of broadcasting using our advanced 5G technology at the MWC, which is the world's largest mobile festival,” said GY Seo, senior vice president of the firm's networks business.
“Utilizing the advantage of the 5G network technology, which is super fast and low latency, we will continue to show various possibilities for 5G networks in various fields including the entertainment sector,” Seo added.
LG Electronics unveiled its 5G-enabled LG V50 ThinQ and the LG G8 ThinQ smartphones, Sunday, a day ahead of the opening of the MWC. It will showcase the two smartphones during the trade fair.