▲ Kim Young-kung, Director, Head of NG-OSS Lab, Network Technology R&D Center of SK Telecom, poses for a picture after winning

“Network Transformation Initiative” award at the Asia Communication Awards 2018 in Singapore.

SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) today announced that the company has won the “Best Mobile App for Connected Living” award at the Asia Mobile Awards 2018, part of Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai, in China.

The company also received “Network Transformation Initiative” award at the Asia Communication Awards 2018 held at Conrad Centennial Singapore on the same day.

Prior to today’s events, the company had also picked up the “Best Network Development of the Year Award” at the TechXLR8 Awards 2018 on June 12 and the “Best Asian Telecom Carrier” and “Most Innovative Approach to Analytic” awards at the Telecom Asia Awards 2018 on June 26. It has pocketed a total of four global ICT awards in a month’s time.

※Hosted by GSMA (Global System for Mobile communications Association), winners of the Asia Mobile Awards are judged by a panel of leading telecommunication industry experts at Mobile World Congress Shanghai.

※Organized by U.K.’s online media Total Telecom, Asia Communication Awards recognize outstanding and innovative performances of the region’s telecom carriers in areas of media, marketing, customer service, telecommunications, etc.

At the Asia Mobile Awards 2018, SK Telecom’s “T Map X NUGU” took home the “Best Mobile App for Connected Living” award.

The “Best Mobile App for Connected Living” award recognizes a wide range of transformative mobile apps that enhance or bring new benefits to everyday life.

Last September, the company introduced “T map x NUGU” by combining its navigation app, “T Map” and AI platform called “NUGU” to offer improved road safety and customer convenience.

While driving, “T map x NUGU” users can select or change their destinations with a simply voice command without the need to touch the screen. This dramatically increases driver safety. Drivers can set their routes to the cheapest gas station and the nearest parking lot using their voice. They can also make and receive calls without picking up the phone, making their driving experience far more convenient.

In the meantime, SK Telecom also received the “Network Transformation Initiative” award at the Asia Communication Awards 2018 for its Carrier-Grade SDN (soft-ware-defined networking) platform.

SK Telecom’s Carrier-Grade SDN platform is a core network virtualization technology that enables a comprehensive network orchestration. It provides integrated management and orchestration of network traffic flows by determining the optimal route for each traffic in a complex network setting. Thus, network services can be quickly and stably offered even when there is an abundance of new services. SK Telecom commercially deployed the carrier-grade SDN platform to the LTE network in 2015 and to SK Telecom’s broadband network in 2017.

In the 5G era, ultra-high-speed and large volume-based IoT services will be widely available with growing volume of traffic rolling out of various devices. By utilizing the company’s virtualization technology, a large volume of traffic can be efficiently managed.

“Scoring back-to-back wins at multiple global ICT awards such as the TechXLR8 2018 and the Telecom Asia Awards 2018 demonstrates that our efforts to provide differentiated services to our customers were globally recognized,” said Park Jin-hyo, EVP of ICT R&D Center at SK Telecom. “We will continue to advance our technology to provide our customers with more and greater values.”