In what could be seen as a step closer to bringing super-fast internet to consumers, South Korea's largest mobile carrier SK Telecom and Samsung Electronics have successfully completed field trial for its 5G system at 28 GHz. The companies announced Monday that the test results will be instrumental in building an enhanced 5G system.
For the test, the companies used 5G Millimeter Wave technologies, including transmitter, receiver and antenna, designed to effectively transmit radio signals in the 28GHz band as well as 3D beam-forming.
"This 5G field trial is one of the key milestones for the world's first 5G commercialization," Cheun Kyung-whoon, executive vice president and head of Communications Research Team of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement. "Samsung will prove the feasibility of key technologies with SK Telecom. This strategic collaboration will lead to the early adoption of 5G communications and provision of immersive service experience to end-users."
Park Jin-hyo, senior vice president and head of Network Technology R&D center at SK Telecom, said that the company had moved a step closer to achieving the world's first commercialisation of 5G with the successful field test of a 28GHz millimeter wave 5G system.
SK Telecom and Samsung started their collaboration in 2015 by building the millimeter wave 5G system, and have been conducting field tests using outdoor 5G base stations and a vehicle equipped with a 5G test handset since October the same year. The test was conducted to measure and analyse service quality like service coverage, transmission speed, latency and radio wave/signal strength.
Having successfully completed field test for 5G system, SK Telecom now plans to discuss specifications for 5G trial services at the 5G Open Trial Specification Alliance.
