SK Telecom chalked up revenue of 17.52 trillion won, operating income of 1.53 trillion won, and net income of 2.65 trillion won, based on Korean International Financial Reporting Standards (K-IFRS) in 2017.
Backed by a sales increase in the media and IoT sectors, SK Telecom’s revenue increased by 2.5 percent in 2017 over the previous year to achieve a successful sales turnaround for the first time since 2014.
Thanks to the improved performance of its subsidiary, 11th, and the growth in its media business, its operating income edged up slightly by 0.1%. In the meantime, its net income jumped by a whopping 60.1% compared to last year due to increased equity gains backed by SK Hynix’s strong sales.
In 2017, SK Telecom focused on solidifying its leadership in the mobile telecommunications industry and securing new growth engines in New ICT sectors, which include media, IoT, commerce, AI and so forth.
Despite the rise in contract-based mobile fee discounts, SK Telecom’s mobile telecommunications sector remained strong, thanks to the increased number of LTE subscribers and mobile data usage. Its total number of subscribers surpassed 30.2 million at the end of 2017, reaching the 30-million-subscriber threshold. Among them, the LTE users surpassed 22.87 million, making up 75.7% of the total subscribers. Mobile data usage per LTE subscriber also rose by 0.8GB, compared to last year to record 6.0GB.
SK Telecom and Korean Transportation Safety Authority (TS) announced the successful cooperative driving of two 5G self-driving cars in K-City, the pilot city for self-driving located in Hwaseong, on Feb. 6.
5G x HD Map to Lead New Driving Experience
SK Telecom and Korean Transportation Safety Authority (TS) announced on Feb. 6 that two 5G self-driving cars successfully ran “cooperative driving” courses, where traffic information was effectively shared between the two vehicles, in K-City, the pilot city for self-driving located in Hwaseong.
In partnership with TS and Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom deployed 5G network using 28 GHz ultra-high frequency broadband in every corner of K-City that covers an area of 360,000妊 last December. Traffic related infrastructure such as CCTVs, traffic lights have been linked to self-driving cars and control centers through 5G technology.
For the demonstration, two 5G network connected autonomous cars that SK Telecom and TS co-developed were used.
During the driving trial, the two vehicles utilized a 5G vehicle communication technology, V2X (Vehicle to Everything), 3D HD map, a deep-learning-based decision-making technology to communicate each other, and to share traffic information with the control center and traffic lights. In the end, the vehicles safely completed driving on K-City’s some 2-km track which included a school zone, crossroads and a highway.
This is the first time that multiple 5G self-driving cars ran in coordination while monitoring each other’s route and roads safety. SK Telecom said that starting 2019, the company will introduce its self-driving technology on the nation’s main highways, utilizing its 5G network.
When the cars recognized a school zone area, they automatically slowed down. When a life-size model of a child appeared on the road, a CCTV conected to a streetlight immediately sent a message using 5G technology to the nearby self-driving vehicle. Upon receiving the message, the vehicle instantly stopped and started driving only after it was confirmed that the model was not on the road. This showed that SK Telecom’s 5G technology’s ultra-low-latency of less than 1ms of response time can help prevent traffic accidents.
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