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| Yu Ji-chang, head of SK Broadband's infra division, speaks during a news conference held at the firm's head office in Seoul, Thursday, announcing the start of the company's new internet service providing a maximum speed of 2.5 Gbps. / Courtesy of SK Broadband |
By Jun Ji-hye
SK Broadband began internet service with the maximum speed of 2.5 gigabits per second (Gbps), the fastest in the nation, to enhance the convenience of users who use multiple devices simultaneously at home, the firm said Thursday.
The affiliate of the nation's top mobile carrier SK Telecom said the new service dubbed "Giga Premium," which marks the first service of its type in the nation, provides internet speeds of 2.5 Gbps per household and 1 Gbps per device.
"SK Broadband began the Giga Premium service, which is the fastest and offers great performance compared to services offered by our competitors, by applying our distinguished technologies connecting communication stations to optical cable networks," said Yu Ji-chang, head of the firm's infrastructure division, during a news conference held in central Seoul.
The service uses next-generation technology, called Gigabit-passive optical network (G-PON), which follows recommendations of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the firm said, noting that it does not require the building of additional infrastructure such as cables.
The G-PON technology offers better performance compared to Ethernet-passive optical network (E-PON) used by a domestic competitor, the firm said.
Amid development of internet technology, an increasing number of users use multiple devices such as smartphones, tablet PCs and artificial intelligence (AI) speakers simultaneously at home and download high definition, massive content.
"Our service is to better respond to such user environment," Yu said, citing a report recently issued by U.S.-based ICT giant Cisco stating that the number of devices used by a user is expected to increase to 12.2 in 2021.
An Weon-gyu, in charge of SK Broadband's marketing support division, said the new service will be useful for those who enjoy games and virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) content at home.
"Those who use smart home devices can also make the most use of the service," he said.
The firm noted that it plans to provide up to 10 Gbps internet within the year and 100 Gbps internet in 2020 by continuing to improve the technologies.
