SK Telecom is pulling out all the stops to attract show goers to its exhibit at Mobile World Congress 2018, showing off a hologram artificial intelligence, a self-driving car and 3D HD maps, among other things.
Under the theme of “Perfect 5G,” SK Telecom will display various 5G-related technologies, including a real-time streaming technology of the 5G nonstandalone standard as defined by 3GPP and a 5G-LTE interworking technology that transmits data by crossing between two frequency bands—the LTE frequency band of 2.6 GHz and a 5G frequency band identified as 3.5 GHz-28 GHz.
Attendees can also expect to see the company’s 5G self-driving car that just completed a drive trial earlier this month. Through a separately installed screen, the operator will show an image of its autonomous vehicle and vehicle to everything (V2X) technology that spots passengers and accidents on the road.
SK Telecom also plans to introduce oksusu Social VR, its latest VR innovation enabling users to engage with video content and interact with each other inside the virtual world. The media platform allows users to watch video content with peers around the world and share conversations with each other in the virtual space.
With 5G, SK is expecting an upgraded image quality with ultra-high-speed data transmission where the visual quality is 16 times greater than current full HD. The operator said that once the 5G network is applied to the VR platform, users will be able to enjoy high-resolution livestreaming VR content on a real-time basis. Scenery of aurora from the north pole, for instance, can be vividly presented via the VR platform, or users could watch a soccer match played in Spain as if they were actually watching it at the stadium.
SK is also leveraging some of the work it’s done with the Facebook-led Telecom Infra Project (TIP) at the Ecosystem Accelerator Center (TEAC) in Seoul. Three of the five startup companies that SK is featuring at the booth—Optella, Kulcloud and Transcelestial—were selected through the TEAC and SK will be helping them set up separate booths and hold business meetings at MWC.
Earlier this month, SK announced that it had deployed, along with the Korea Transportation Safety Authority, 5G infrastructure in K-City, South Korea’s pilot city for self-driving cars. It’s billed as the world’s first 5G infrastructure-equipped autonomous driving test city and is poised to serve as a “5G self-driving outpost” where domestic companies and organizations can test their 5G autonomous driving technology and speed up their technological development.