South Korean telecommunications operator SK Telecom has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with network equipment maker Nokia. The partners will jointly develop technologies to support the rollout of a 5G mobile network, The Korea Times reports, citing Park Jin-hyo, SVP and head of network technology R&D center at SK Telecom. SK Telecom says it is willing to work with more network equipment manufacturers for this technology, alongside its existing partners Samsung Electronics and Ericson.
The SK Telecom-Nokia deal covers virtualization, network establishment, next-generation cloud network management and gigabit-class data transmission, all of them geared towards the development of base stations for 5G networks. The two companies also agreed to extend their cooperation for testing, verifying and standardizing their 5G-related technologies at home and abroad.
According to SK Telecom CEO Ha Sung-min, the 5G network technology is "expected to roll out around 2020". "Though the 5G network technology has a long way to be commercialized, we'll take the initiative to deliberate and research it", an SK Telecom PR manager added.
On 11 June, Nokia and SK Telecom have rolled out a series of TDD-FDD carrier aggregation tests. By aggregating 10 spectrum frequencies allocated for both LTE variants for a 200 MHz of bandwidth, Nokia and SK Telecom reached a throughput speed of 3.78 Gbps. The throughput was achieved with Nokia's Single RAN service, including the Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station, enhanced with software to aggregate carriers on both TDD and FDD LTE spectrum and to implement LTE-Advanced MIMO technology.
