SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) announced today that it will hold meetings of the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance from March 19 to March 21 to discuss measures to facilitate commercialization of next-generation mobile networks around the globe.

The meetings, to be held at Lotte Hotel Seoul, will be attended by 17 world-leading mobile network operators including Verizon, AT&T, China Mobile and NTT Docomo, as well as 32 telecommunications equipment makers and handset manufacturers such as Samsung, Qualcomm, Intel and Ericsson.

Byun Jae-woan, SK Telecom’s CTO and Head of Technology Division, has been elected as the Chairman of the NGMN Board in November 2012 and the company has been elected for the third term as a board member, thus continuing its efforts to lead the international standardization of cutting-edge information and communication technologies.

SK Telecom will hold ’NGMN Forum’ for mobile operators and manufacturers, as well as the ’OC (Operating Committee) Meeting,’ a working-level meeting for operators. These meetings will allow the attendees to hold in-depth discussions for successful development and standardization of LTE-Advanced technologies under the Alliance’s ongoing projects.

As of March 11, the Board of the NGMN Alliance has announced the launch of four new projects, which will determine the focus of the NGMN Alliance for the next 12 months:  Next Generation Converged Operations Requirements, Evolution of the Radio Access Network (RAN), Mobile Content Delivery Optimization, and Deployment and Operation of Small Cells.

SK Telecom has been designated as the leader of the RAN Evolution project that aims to evaluate option and give recommendations for a radio access network architecture providing optimized operations, higher efficiency and enhanced performance; the Mobile Content Delivery Optimization project, which focuses on defining use cases for Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and developing related requirements; and the Small Cells project that aims to define scenarios, use cases, system architecture and functional requirements for the fastest and efficient introduction and operations of Small Cells.

In particular, SK Telecom will introduce ’Super Cell,’ a next-generation LTE technology it unveiled for the first time at Mobile World Congress 2013 held in February. Super Cell virtually eliminates inter-cell boundaries and makes multiple number of small cells/macro cells act as one cell by allocating identical cell IDs. As the technology removes the need for handover that occurs when the phone is moving away from the area covered by one cell and entering the area covered by another cell, customers can enjoy seamless communication service including ultra-fast data rates even at the cell boundaries.

"The meetings of the NGMN Alliance will provide a valuable chance for mobile network operators and equipment/handset manufacturers to share their ideas and opinions on LTE-Advanced technologies to accelerate their standardization," said Byun Jae-woan, CTO and Head of Future Technology Division at SK Telecom. "SK Telecom will continue to work closely with other members of the NGMN Alliance to facilitate the development and adoption of innovative technologies, thus contributing to the accomplishment of the Alliance’s goals and increased convenience and benefits for end-customers."