Seoul, Korea – September 17, 2018 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced today that it has been selected by SK Telecom to supply the company with 5G solutions, including core and RAN, compliant to 5G New Radio (NR) standard based on 3GPP Release 15.

Samsung and SK Telecom will begin 5G commercial deployments in October 2018 using Non-Standalone (NSA) architecture. NSA uses legacy 4G LTE network for mobility control, and transmits gigabit speed data traffic through both 4G and 5G networks.

“Samsung has been at the forefront of commercializing each iteration of mobile network technology, from 2G through to 5G with our advanced technology leadership,” said Youngky Kim, President and Head of the Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “We are excited to partner with SK Telecom and to be part of its innovative journey to accelerate the real-world 5G commercial service.”

“SK Telecom and Samsung have been working closely to provide the highest quality user experience for consumers,” said JongRyeol Kang, EVP, ICT Infra Center, at SK Telecom. “Today, 5G is already a reality for SK Telecom as we move forward to create the best mobile 5G network and offer brand new experiences to our customers.”

Since 2014, Samsung and SK Telecom have been jointly exploring and studying the potential of 5G to create ideal commercial scenarios using both 3.5GHz and 28GHz. In June 2017, the companies achieved a world-first by successfully interworking 4G LTE and 5G NR utilizing 3.5GHz and 28GHz spectrum. Samsung continued its progress in 5G technology in July of this year by unveiling its 5G NR radio equipment supporting 3.5GHz spectrum, to be used for Korean operators’ commercial deployment from 2018.