Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- SK Telecom, South Korea's top mobile carrier, has developed a new traffic dispersion technology that would double the speed of 5G data transfer inside buildings and crowded areas such as shopping malls and subway stations.

5G, which was commercialized for the first time in South Korea in April this year, is capable of transferring data 10 times faster than 4G. However, the actual 5G data speed inside buildings and crowded areas is about 1.7 times faster than 4G's average data speed of 619 Megabits per second, because there aren't enough base stations to fully support 5G users.

SK Telecom (SKT) said in a statement on Wednesday that it has developed "5GX In-building Solution" which would double the data speed of 5G at crowded areas by effectively dispersing data traffic to prevent overload on base stations. SKT said the new technology will be applied to its 5G network later this year.

"We will provide seamless high-quality 5G services to our customers inside buildings and at crowded areas where it is hard for 5G signal to reach," SKT's 5GX Labs head Park Jong-kwan was quoted as saying. He predicted about 80 percent of 5G data traffic will occur indoors.

SKT's 5G traffic dispersion solution features "Active Antenna" technology which allows small indoor 5G base stations to operate eight antennae. Currently, indoor base stations only operate a total of four. The company promised to provide full services in populated areas by increasing the data processing capacity of 5G by 16 times.