SK Telecom and Samsung Electronics jointly won the “Infrastructure Innovation Award” at the Global Telecoms Business (GTB) Telecoms Innovation Summit 2017 for their successful verification of 5G mobile handover in an urban outdoor environment – a world first.

SK Telecom and Samsung teamed up to research and verify technical feasibilities of using mmWave frequency (28GHz) for super-fast and real-time 5G mobility services. In September 2016, the companies announced they successfully completed the 5G mmWave handover by connecting base stations to operators’ fiber optic networks. Besides 5G handover, the companies successfully tested 3D (Dimension) beam forming and confirmed the accuracy of the ray tracing RF design solution, which are considered to be the key enablers to make 5G mmWave commercially ready.

“SK Telecom is delighted to receive these global prestigious awards as they recognize our relentless efforts to introduce innovative network technologies,” said Jin-hyo Park, Senior Vice President and Head of Network Technology R&D Center. “SK Telecom will continue to develop advanced technologies to launch the 5G network, which will play a pivotal role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

“It is a pleasure to be jointly recognized as key players for turning 5G into reality. The result signifies the opportunity of mmWave which will create new 5G business models requiring wide bandwidths,” said Paul Kyung-whoon Cheun, Executive Vice President and Head of Next-Generation Communications Business Team of Samsung Electronics.