South Korean Telecom's plan for 4G network rollout

SK Telecom (SKT), South Korea’s number one player in the wireless sector in terms of subscribers, has unveiled its strategy for the commercialisation of fourth-generation services, Korea’s IT Times reports. The cellco has revealed that it expects to inaugurate commercial Long Term Evolution (LTE) services in the capital Seoul by July this year, with coverage to be expanded to the Seoul metropolitan area and six other cities by 2012 before launching nationwide in 2013.
In order to achieve its rollout targets SKT has announced that it has selected three vendors as key equipment suppliers for the its LTE network, with local companies Samsung Electronics and LG Ericsson picked, along with Finland’s Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN). Samsung and LG, it is understood, will supply switching equipment, while all three contracted vendors will provide base station hardware. SKT has said that it will apply multi-vendor interoperability technology in order to simultaneously use different vendors' switching equipment and base station equipment in a single area; it claims such a decision will allow it to select optimised equipment according to different network coverage levels, thereby creating a higher-quality LTE network. Tablet PCs, data modems and smartphones that can take advantage of LTE technology are expected to launch in July 2011; SKT has noted that smartphone customers will access its 3G network for voice services, while using the 4G network for data services via Dual Band Dual Mode (DBDM) format.
SKT has also announced a number of other elements related to the introduction of commercial 4G services. The mobile operator will adopt its own Smart Cloud Access Network (SCAN) method, a cloud-based network deployment method which is optimised specifically for wireless communication that SKT claims will allow it to create a fully integrated LTE network. With base stations usually consisting of a digital unit (DU) and radio unit (RU), SKT’s SCAN method will see DUs on the LTE infrastructure stored together in one area while remote radio units (RRU) and the antenna, will be deployed in various locations.
The mobile operator has also said that, once it receives approval from telecoms regulator the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) it plans to use the 800MHz band to offer LTE services, which it said will improve coverage inside buildings and underground. Meanwhile, In order to boost network capacity SKT will increase the number of Wi-Fi zones it has to around 62,000 by end-2011, while it also intends to add some 9,000 additional femtocells to bring the total it has to 10,000. Further, having run a pilot of a ‘six-sector’ solution – which can double capacity on existing base stations – on some 20 cell sites at the end of last year, the technology will be expanded to 500 base stations in 2011.
Commenting on the plans, Bae Joon-Dong, SKT’s president noted: ‘We're very excited with this major milestone. As we begin this journey in the evolution of our wireless network, we are delighted to partner with top LTE equipment suppliers to build our 4G network.’


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