SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) announced its participation in Mobile World Congress 2014 to be held from February 24 to 27, at Fira Gran Via, Barcelona, Spain. The company has been participating in this global event for five consecutive years since 2010 to share with the world its innovative technologies, suggest a future direction for mobile operators, and seek business partnerships with mobile operators across the globe.

At MWC 2014, SK Telecom will introduce its industry-leading LTE-Advanced technologies including LTE-Advanced Tri-Band Carrier Aggregation (CA) and inter-site CA; share its vision of future network technologies like vRAN (virtualized RAN), SDN and NFV; display its user-oriented services such as T Phone, an innovative All-IP communication platform; and unveil its progress in ICT-based growth businesses, including smart appcessory, healthcare, and solution that promise to deliver greater convenience to customers’ daily lives.

•    Innovative Technologies that Drive Network Evolution

At this year’s MWC, SK Telecom will demonstrate LTE-Advanced tri-band CA (“20MHz+20MHz+20MHz”) that offers up to 450Mbps speeds, which is the highest speed realized by a FD-LTE service provider. The 450Mbps LTE-Advanced, once commercialized, will allow users to download an 800MB movie in 15 seconds.
 

In June 2013, the company became the world’s first to commercialize LTE-Advanced service through “10MHz+10MHz” CA that supports up to 150Mbps of downlink data rate. Then, it achieved another milestone in realizing a faster and more reliable network by demonstrating 225Mbps LTE-Advanced by aggregating 20MHz and 10MHz bands in November 2013. In January 2014, the company has announced the successful development of LTE-Advanced tri-band CA for the first time in the world by demonstrating 300Mpbs LTE-Advanced through the aggregation of 20MHz, 10MHz and 10MHz bands.
 

Furthermore, at MWC 2014, SK Telecom will demonstrate LTE-Advanced “20MHz + 20MHz” CA that offers 300Mbps of speeds on smartphones; and Inter-Site CA, a technology that allows for the aggregation of two different base stations that each offers the strongest signal strength for different frequency bands; and other future network technologies like ITM for CEM, vRAN, SDN and NFV. The company will also display “20MHz + 10MHz” LTE-Advanced modem (maximum data rates of 225Mbps), the commercialization date of which is being discussed with the vendor.
 

Besides the above technologies, the company, together with Broadcom Corporation, a global innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, will also demonstrate an advanced Carrier Aggregation (CA) femtocell solution for 4G LTE-Advanced small cells at the exhibition booth of Broadcom. Built on Broadcom’s small cell SoC technology, the LTE-Advanced small cell solution will allow SK Telecom to deliver 2X faster data throughput to its subscribers. The company plans to conduct a trial for the solution by applying it to its commercial network in the second half of 2014 with aims to commercialize it in 2015.

•    Sophisticated Services Aimed at Enriching User Experience

 
At the exhibition, SK Telecom will also showcase new and sophisticated services designed to enhance user experience and convenience.

As part of its efforts to develop customer-oriented services, SK Telecom commercialized T Phone on February 19, 2014. As the first dialer platform to be developed by a mobile carrier, T Phone offers an integrated package of innovative mobile communication feature: Users can enjoy smart contact search; receive spam notifications and caller ID for incoming calls from unknown numbers; view frequent contacts on the main screen of the dialer; and conveniently set up other call-related services like call forwarding. In particular, the smart contact search is realized through a phone book that not only contains contacts stored by the user but also connects to the company’s massive database of phone numbers, website addresses and maps of 1 million stores/companies inclusive of hospitals, stores and restaurants. For instance, when a user enters the word “pizza,” the phone book will show phone numbers of pizza places stored by the user, along with phone numbers, maps and website addresses of pizza places provided by the database. Here, the information provided by the company’s database appears in the order of proximity of the user’s location to the store using SK Telecom’s Hybrid Positioning System.
 

T Phone, first made available to existing users of Samsung Galaxy Note 3 through firmware upgrade on February 19, is embedded in Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and LG G Pro 2 released from February 20, and will be built as a basic feature in most of the Android-based smartphones to be released by SK Telecom.
 

Besides T Phone, SK Telecom will display a number of voice value-added services including T Group On, a group calling service; Smart Voice Mail, an integrated messaging service; Multi-Number, a service that allows customers to use up to 10 additional phone numbers through one mobile phone; and T Memoring, a reminder service.
 

■ Open Platforms that Boost Further Innovations and Shape Future Lifestyles  
 
SK Telecom has been taking an open platform approach to allow third party developers to easily create new and innovative services that add value to people’s lives by utilizing its sophisticated ICT platforms. 
At MWC 2014, the company will introduce three open platforms, namely LBS Platform, Context Platform, and Augmented Reality Platform.
 
LBS Platform, built with leading indoor-positioning technologies that can accurately measure location via various sensors, allows for the development of differentiated location-based services for many different venues. At its booth, SK Telecom will use smart glass to allow visitors to gain first-hand experience of an indoor location service. Going forward, the company plans to tap into the global market with LBS platforms that can be easily applied to diverse venues like exhibition centers, sports stadiums, shopping malls and museums, while building an LBS-related ecosystem joined by SMEs.
 

Context Platform presumes what situation the user is in by utilizing smartphone’s diverse functions including camera, sensors, GPS and Wi-Fi. Also, based on the user’s device usage patterns, the platform can figure out his/her personal connections, amount of spending, and time spent on games. Using this platform, SK Telecom has introduced ‘Life Log’ service that automatically records a smart device user’s daily activities. 
 

Augmented Reality (AR) Platform, created to boost the AR-related ecosystem, adds greater fun and convenience to people’s lives. By offering a variety of development tools and functions, the platform brings down SMEs’ entry barrier to AR technologies by making it much easier for them to develop and offer AR services.
 

 
■ ICT-Based Services that Create New Growth Opportunities
 
SK Telecom will showcase new products and services that leverage the strength of ICT to add value to diverse industries.
 

Based on its unrivalled network quality and strong home-grown technologies such as near field communication technology, sensor technology and smart device controlling technology, the company has been focusing on the development of diverse appcessories in areas of safety/security, entertainment and child education. At the exhibition, SK Telecom will display Attach, a loss-prevention appcessory, Smart Green Button, an emergency calling appcessory, and T-Bike Black Box, a Mobius Platform-based black box solution. It will also introduce Atti, a kids learning robot; Smart Beam, the world's smallest pico projector for all HDMI devices; and Smart Wi-Fi Audio, a web speaker that allows users to easily listen to music by accessing Internet radio stations or music streaming services.
 

Meanwhile, the company will also introduce ICT-based health care services/solutions such as Health-On, a personalized health management service; Smart PHC, a total solution that enables public health centers to offer swift and accurate on-site diagnosis of diseases; and smart hospital solutions like Patient Guide and Bedside Station.
 

In addition, many attractive business models in the field of enterprise solutions, including mobile security solutions and video analysis solutions, will also be showcased at the exhibition.