Go to contents

SK Telecom selects potential vendors for 5G networks

Posted September. 15, 2018 08:12,   

Updated September. 15, 2018 08:12

한국어

SK Telecom announced on Friday that it has selected Samsung Electronics, Swedish company Ericsson, and Finnish business Nokia as preferred bidders for 5G telecommunications equipment. With attention garnered regarding the selection of Huawei, the Chinese provider has turned out to be excluded on the list.

The Korean telecommunications company said that the three providers would become the successful bidders unless unexpected change occurs in the process, explaining that a thorough review was executed regarding a wide range of corporate aspects from capabilities in realizing world-class 5G service and vitalizing the ecosystem to investment cost to fiscal soundness. Three months of bench mark testing from June preceded the announcement of the provider selection, which aims to test equipment performance. Huawei was one of the providers subject to the testing, but failed to stay on the final provider list.

Experts in the ICT industry have analyzed that SK Telecom's latest decision was reflected in the results that connectivity and linkage matter between the existing 4G LTE networks and the early-stage 5G systems. Samsung, Ericsson and Nokia provided the majority of SK Telecom’s 4G telecommunications equipment.


Tae-Ho Hwang taeho@donga.com