KT chairman underlines 5G, intelligent network at MWC
KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu speaks about fifth-generation and intelligent networks at a keynote speech at this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) at the Fira Gran Via exhibition center in Barcelona, Spain, Monday (local time). / Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-seog
By Lee Min-hyung
BARCELONA ― KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu shared his pioneering vision about how the upcoming fifth-generation (5G) network would crystallize what he calls the intelligent network era, in his opening keynote address at the world’s largest mobile show, Monday (local time).
Under the theme of “5G & Beyond, Accelerating the Future,” Hwang explained a series of upcoming paradigm shifts that the next-generation network will bring to our lives. This was his second time to deliver a keynote address at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) since 2015 when he offered a glimpse of the future of 5G.
For this year, his 5G vision took more concrete shape, as he showed a set of the telecom operator’s latest achievements as an official sponsor for next year’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics, which will be the world’s first sporting event with trial 5G services.
Hwang grabbed the attention from the audience, broadcasting its state-of-the-art 5G services ― such as Sync View, which transmits the viewpoints of athletes in real time to the audience, and Time Slice visual service providing multi-perspective visual images in various angles.
“5G will be the key driving force to change the world, as it opens the intelligent network era,” Hwang said in his keynote, adding emerging technologies, such as big data, security systems and artificial intelligence (AI), will serve as building blocks for the new era.
“Global telecom operators should join hands to conduct an in-depth discussion to turn the intelligent network into the key to solve problems for people such as climate change and infectious diseases.”
Hwang has been a strong supporter of the intelligent network vision, which he believes will generate inordinate value for people. He said the era offers infinite possibilities, as it connects human beings to growing numbers of internet of things devices and creates enormous value out of it.
The 5G will also be at the forefront to drive not just such emerging technologies, but change fundamentals of all the value chains for each industry, due to the ever-growing importance of big data, according to him.
He also underlined that the 5G network is not just about speed and capacity, but connectivity and intelligence.
To be more specific, the KT chief unveiled its three core achievements in the intelligent network ― location intelligence, network security and orchestration capability.
The firm’s GiGA location detector is widely used to improve public safety, taking advantage of the three-dimensional information about surrounding areas and network detecting systems.
In particular, the orchestration capability is the essential element of the intelligent network, as human beings will be surrounded by tens of billions of drones and connected vehicles in their daily lives in the future, which will cause disastrous results unless they are controlled properly, according to KT.