In particular, the operator is expanding in-building coverage centered around 120 department stores, shopping malls and airports throughout the nation. Through the application of its self-developed ‘Total In-building Solution’, SK Telecom aims to provide faster in-building data rates by using four antennas of a smartphone. In the second half of this year, SK Telecom plans to expand 5G network coverage to nationwide subways, national parks and festival sites.
With the development and application of 4G-5G dual connectivity technology, SK Telecom’s 5G network supports up to 2.7Gbps data transmission speed, the company said. SK Telecom has applied quantum cryptography in an attempt to eliminate the risk of hacking and eavesdropping.
Starting 5 April, customers will be able to subscribe to 5GX price plans which will be available in four variants. The ‘Slim’ pack offers 8GB of data (1Mbps speed after data cap) at KRW 55,000 per month, while the ‘5GX Standard’ comes with 150GB of data (5Mbps after data cap) at KRW 75,000 per month.
Customers who subscribe to ‘5GX Prime’ or ‘5GX Platinum’ until end-June will be able to use unlimited data without speed restrictions at KRW 89,000 and KRW 125,000 per month, respectively.
Without this promotion, ‘5GX Prime’ will offer 200GB of data at KRW 95,000 per month, and ‘5GX Platinum’ will provide 300 GB of data at KRW 125,000 per month. Unlimited data will be provided until end-December.
Compared to its LTE price plans, the company is offering the same amount of 5G data at lower prices. For instance, ‘5GX 75,’ which provides 150GB of monthly data allowance, costs KRW 4,000 less than T Plan Family (LTE plan) priced at KRW 79,000 per month. Subscribers to selective contract discount plans can also receive 25 percent discount from these prices.
SK Telecom plans to update its price plans after analyzing the data usage patterns of subscribers of unlimited plans. SK Telecom has also announced that it has secured around 8,000 different content in diverse areas including game, UHD, AR, VR and communications.
In the Game area, SK Telecom has teamed up with Riot Games to create VR and AR versions of League of Legends(LoL) Champions Korea, the most-watched esports game in Korea, and begin broadcasting the games exclusively from the first half of this year.
The company will offer five different games including VR game Gunjack. Through partnership with Hatch, SK Telecom will exclusively provide 5 streaming game content. It also plans to begin offering Kartrider VR under cooperation with Nexon. SK Telecom plans to offer ‘Harry Potter AR’ in the first half of 2019 through partnership with Niantic.
The operator has also launched the ‘SKT 5GX’ section within its OTT video service ‘oksusu’ to offer a rich variety of media contents that can be experienced via 5G. ‘SKT 5GX’ consists of three different menus namely ‘VR’, ‘5G MAX’ and ‘UHD’. The VR menu provides VR content related to idol stars, sports games and movies. It exclusively offers K-pop VR content to provide K-pop fans with an immersive VR experience to feel as if their favorite idol star is standing right in front of them. It also features one-on-one VR fitness and golf lessons; VR tour of famous art galleries of both home and abroad; and a 360-degree VR trip of twenty different cities in the world including Rome and New York.
The ‘5G MAX’ menu is designed to provide an immersive UHD video watching experience. By wearing a VR headset, users can access the latest movies, documentaries and extreme sports on a large screen resembling an IMAX theater. The ‘UHD’ menu offers UHD (4K or higher) dramas, entertainment shows and music channel content. While watching a UHD video, users can pinch zoom the screen to enlarge the image by up to four times without quality degradations.
For sports fans, oksusu is offering ultra-widescreen broadcasting (12K UHD), which is three times wider than the existing UHD, as well as live broadcasting of sports games that are delivered 15 seconds earlier than other services, SK Telecom said. It also offers ‘5GX social VR,’ a service designed to enable multiple users to watch baseball games together in a virtual reality environment.
SK Telecom also plans to upgrade ‘T Phone,’ which is being used by 13 million subscribers in Korea, to ‘5G T Phone’ that supports UHD voice and video calling. Until end-June, SK Telecom will apply a zero-rating policy to users of the ‘SKT 5GX’ section of oksusu to enable them to access VR and UHD video content with no data deducted from their monthly data cap. The company will also provide up to 5GB of free data for users of its mobile games and VR games.
SK Telecom will work with diverse companies to expand its zero-rating policy so as to boost the ecosystem for 5G services and content. The company will also apply ‘5G Media Compression Technology’ which aims to reduce data consumption by more than 30 percent, and HEVC codec, which can decrease content capacity by up to 50 percent.
