SK Telecom announced on Nov. 7 that it successfully demonstrated Uplink Cooperative Multi-Point (or Uplink CoMP), a technology that can significantly improve LTE data upload speeds in base station boundary areas. 

Signal strength is weakened in base station boundary areas, which leads to customer inconveniences caused by reduced data transmission speed. As more and more customers are uploading data from their devices (e.g. sending photos, videos taken with their mobile devices to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, or uploading specific images/videos to the cloud for safe and long storage), SK Telecom decided to join hands with Ericsson, the world's largest maker of mobile network equipment by market share, to develop Uplink CoMP to enhance customer convenience by increasing data upload speeds in coverage boundary areas. 

SK Telecom and Ericsson started developing Uplink CoMP since last July and conducted a two-week technology demonstration from October 15, 2012. 

The demonstration showed that data upload speed (from device located in the coverage boundary area) between macro base stations increased by more than 20%. 

Uplink CoMP speeds up the data uploading rate/process in the coverage boundary areas by receiving handset/device signals through multiple base stations and then choosing the signal of the highest quality to be uploaded.

Moreover, in case a user conducts data download and upload at the same time, the uploading and downloading tasks will be handled separately by different base stations (and using a better quality base station for data uploads), thereby allowing users to actually experience the accelerated speed of data transmission. 

SK Telecom CTO Byun, 1st Korean to Serve as Chairman of the NGMN Board

SK Telecom announced on Nov. 8 that Byun Jae-woan, the company's CTO and Head of the Technology Division, has been elected as the Chairman of the Board of the NGMN Alliance (Next Generation Mobile Networks) at the NGMN Members Meeting held in Frankfurt from November 5-8. 

SK Telecom, elected as a Board member in both 2008 and 2010 to serve the two-year term position, has once again been chosen as a board member to serve the third term. A total of 10 telecommunications companies, including SK Telecom, AT&T, Bell Mobility, China Mobile, Deutsche Telecom, Orange France Telecom, NTT DOCOMO, Telecom Italia, Telefonica and Vodafone, have been appointed to the Board, which will be in charge of making major decisions and setting technological directions in regards to the international mobile telecommunications industry until the year of 2014.

SK Telecom will make all efforts to contribute to the promotion and development of the global mobile telecommunications industry by working closely with other members of the NGMN Alliance to develop a common view of solutions and technologies for the next evolution of wireless networks. 

Byun Jae-woan, CTO and Head of Technology Division of SK Telecom said, "SK Telecom is delighted to be re-elected to the third-term on the NGMN board. Especially, it is a great privilege to serve as the Chairman of the NGMN Board for the next two years, representing this prestigious association. As the company that achieved the world's first commercialization of VoLTE service and successful launch of LTE network, we will bring all our technological expertise and extensive experience to strongly support NGMN's mission and goals.