"A 5G intelligent network will serve as a main artery of the 4th industrial Revolution, and 5G will dramatically transform the conventional industries and markets,” KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu said while announcing a plan to commercialize a 5G network in 2019 on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress 2017 at Barcelona, Spain, in February. KT advanced the initial plan on the commercialization of a 5G network by one year to 2019. KT plans to demonstrate the test-operating of 5G pilot services during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. As KT Chairman Hwang said, KT is aggressively striving to explore such new industry business as IoT, A.I., big data, and connected car to spearhead a new industry ecosystem on top of the conventional network businesses. 

A 5G network can transmit data at a speed of more than 20Gpps, over 40 times faster than the existing general 4G LTE network. KT’s advancing of a 5G network may be construed as Chairman Hwang’s attempt to spearhead the 5G technology race ahead of China and Japan, analysts said. NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest telecom service provider, aims at commercializing a 5G network technology in time for Japan’s hosting of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. China’s top three telecom service providers, including China Mobile, have announced plans to pour 52 trillion won for the improving of telecom networks to introduce 5G services by 2020. 

Countries are scrambling to spearhead efforts to standardize 5G-related technologies and spearhead convergence service markets based on self-driving cars, big data, and A.I. The global market survey institution HIS reported that the value of the global 5G market is projected to stand at $37.8 billion (42 trillion won) in 2020. The Korean 5G market is forecast to surge to 3.106 trillion won in 2020 and 35 trillion won in 2025. 

KT’s Demonstrating ‘5G Olympics’ at PyeongChang Olympics

KT will show off 5G pilot services during the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games for the first time in the world in February. KT is the official telecom service provider of the PyeongChang Olympics. In June 2016, KT complemented the so-called PyeongChang 5G standards to demonstrate 5G pilot services during the PyeongChang Olympics. The Korean telecom service provider has already built networks to test-operate 5G technologies in PyeongChang, Jeongseon, and Gangneung, Gyeonggi-do as well as parts of the Seoul area. KT has developed real-time media technologies based on 5G to help spectators experience sporting moments in a more vivid fashion during the upcoming Olympics. For instance, the “Bobsleigh Think V” will allow spectators to watch Bobsleigh players drive a race at a speed of 150 km per hour with the help of supersmall cameras and ioT telecom model attached to the players. 

KT Strives to Nurture 5 Platforms as Future Core Businesses 

KT has announced a group-wide plan to allow SMEs and venture companies to help in the nurturing of five platforms the telecom provider will implement.

The plan, announced on July 27, may be construed as KT’s determination to collaborate with SMEs and venture companies in the realization of its new vision, departing from the conventional way KT supports its cooperative companies, venture companies and start-ups. KT’s focus on strategies for the second half of 2017 is designed to create jobs and purse shared growth. 

KT aims at nurturing media, smart energy, corporate/public value improvement, financial transactions, and disaster/safety/security as future core businesses, thus contributing to improving business portfolios, which currently focus on the telecom sector.