LIVE FROM MWL UNWRAPPED: With the industry instinctively lurching towards the next mobile network technology, Lee Sang-min, head of SK Telecom’s access network development team, insisted it is in no hurry to move to 6G because of the many lessons learned from its early launch of 5G.
During a session looking at the next five years of 5G, Lee argued the new key use cases for 6G are still unclear. “It does not seem there will be a large increase in new traffic. With this situation, it is difficult to find a reason to rush to 6G.”
For the same reasons, the operator is unlikely to move to nationwide coverage with 6G, he added. “It is very difficult.” It expects the technology to evolve into a mixed-generation network structure, which requires coexisting with 5G.
He noted from the air interface perspective, a multi-RAT set-up for 6G and 5G spectrum sharing is important.
He also called for operator collaboration on development of 6G. The operator already has R&D plans with Japan’s NTT Docomo and Asia player Singtel.
5G lessons
While SKT commercialised 5G early, he acknowledged there’s “no killer service and we still don’t have full network utilisation. We have no differentiation for 5G devices. That’s our lesson learned. We think 6G can be prepared more slowly and with more confidence.”
Another lesson was the limitations of the closed vendor ecosystem, with interoperability only with one company’s products, which increases network costs.
More than five years after launching in early 2019, 5G accounts for 70 per cent of mobile subscribers and “we are now reaching the 5G maturity stage”, he added.
Lee said SKT customers are very sensitive to data speeds and service quality, claiming it delivers three- to five-times higher data speed than other countries. Average speed tests by the government clocked 1Gb/s last year.
Its 5G roadmap includes moves to 5G-Advanced, open RAN and cloud RAN, and AI-popwered networks, both improving performance and delivering AI computing power.
SKT believe cloud RAN is not competitive enough in terms of capacity and power consumption, but it will be enhanced to the level of conventional purpose-built equipment within a few years, he said.
Replays of all Unwrapped interviews this week will be available at:
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