LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE 360 MIDDLE EAST: KT’s Do-Young Kwak stressed the need for continued 4G LTE investment – amid increasing hype around 5G – which he believes is still required to address the urgent demand for data.

The company’s director of infra R&D lab said 70 per cent of its subscribers are using LTE, with some hitting 5GB of data a month.

And, with this expected to increase even further, the company this year was faced with a decision to make.

“We had to decide, more investment in LTE, or change to 5G, and in the early part of this year, we chose the former.”

Kwak however believes the same question will come in the near future, and “we may make another choice, which is why we are paying so much attention to 5G”.

However, he also believes that investment in LTE will not be wasted, as the industry shifts towards 5G, with legacy networks expected to form the base of the next-generation of mobile technology.

“We already have made huge investment on the legacy network – Wi-Fi, LTE and CDMA, so when we deploy our 5G network, and support 5G services, we still have the ambition to leverage the legacy resources.”

South Korea’s second largest operator has billed the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang as the first 5G games, with its goal of launching numerous “5G” capable services.

Kwak confirmed today the company remains on track, as numerous trials continue.