South Korean operator SK Telecom has announced it has selected Samsung Electronics, Ericsson and Nokia equipment for its 5G network deployment. Samsung, Ericsson and Nokia will supply base stations and other transmission equipment, considered a core technology in the commercialization of the 5G network, Yonhap news agency reports. SK Telecom said it ruled out Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies in the final decision.
"SK Telecom selected the aforementioned three companies for the realization of the 5G ecosystem and world-class service quality," the company said, adding that technological capability, as well as financial factors, were considered. SK Telecom earlier announced it would start commercial operations of its 5G mobile network in March 2019.
Samsung confirmed the contract with SK, saying it would supply core and RAN equipment compliant to 5G New Radio standards. Samsung and SK Telecom will start 5G commercial deployments in October this year, using Non-Standalone architecture, the vendor said.
Since 2014, Samsung and SK Telecom have been jointly studying the potential of 5G to create ideal commercial scenarios using both 3.5GHz and 28GHz spectrum. In June 2017, the companies achieved LTE and 5G NR interworking using those frequencies. In July this year, Samsung unveiled its 5G NR radio equipment supporting 3.5GHz spectrum, to be used for Korean operators’ commercial deployment from 2018.
