SK Telecom officially announced that it would participate in the National Disaster and Safety Communication Network (hereinafter referred to as the emergency network) project.

SK Telecom became the first of the three mobile carriers to hold a media event on the afternoon of February 9, and developed the best emergency network design model that reflects the characteristics of 700㎒ frequency. In particular, the company emphasized that ‘multimedia’ and ‘big data’ technologies are the strengths of its emergency network.

SK Telecom officially announced that it would participate in the emergency network project. SK Telecom employees are demonstrating the special functions essential to the implementation of the emergency network, such as radio.

<SK Telecom officially announced that it would participate in the emergency network project. SK Telecom employees are demonstrating the special functions essential to the implementation of the emergency network, such as radio.>

SK Telecom implemented the base stations for testing near the Bundang office building, which reflects the characteristics of the 700㎒ band frequency that will be used for the emergency network. The company demonstrated that the emergency network design model works well in the actual commercial environment without any problem. It also developed a communication redundancy solution and a solution for expanding the LTE Femto coverage and improving the efficiency of network operations in case of failures.

In particular, as it utilizes various multimedia solutions for the emergency network system, SK Telecom said that it could effectively respond to disaster prevention. If a disaster occurs, the person reporting the occurrence of the disaster will be at a loss what to do and have difficulty explaining the correct situation and location. SK Telecom’s ‘disaster reporting voice analysis service’ makes it possible to grasp the keywords of the received voice information, issuer and the meanings of associative words and quickly respond to the disaster.

It also provides the site surveillance service. Based on the ‘site situation analysis service’ linked to local CCTVs, it will be possible to detect the signs of a disaster and proactively respond to it. If there appear abnormal behavioral patterns among people or there is a sudden change in the direction of the movement of crowd, it will be quickly notified to the person in charge.

SK Telecom is planning to use big data at the right time and place to respond to disasters more effectively. If big data is used, it will be possible to initially save lives in a disaster within the so-called golden time.

SK Telecom is planning to implement the location data-based distributed rescue system to optimize the traffic line of emergency rescue. As the travel distance of the ambulance will be reduced by 50%, the time it takes the emergency patient to arrive at a hospital will be reduced, thereby raising the probability of survival.

Big data is also used for weather database (DB) analysis. SK Telecom will install weather sensors in the base station to analyze weather data. It will be possible to analyze the current weather conditions and past history to predict the probability of a disaster and make preparations. It would be difficult without the big data analysis.

SK Telecom is cooperating with an SME to develop a terminal exclusively for disasters. In particular, SK Telecom touts the smartphone-type video radio solution as another strength. As it has various peripheral devices, such as the cradle, fixed unit and remote push-to-talk (PTT) controller, the company emphasized it would grow together with its partners.

SK Telecom has various kinds of know-how: for instance, it joined hands with the Korea Railroad Research Institute to develop the LTE-based railroad wireless communication network (LTE-R) last year. LTE-R is exclusively for the railroad, but as it accommodates most of the emergency network requirements, SK Telecom said that it has an advantageous position in developing emergency network technologies.

“Having operated wireless communication networks for 30 years, SK Telecom is the No. 1 mobile carrier in Korea and has various kinds of experience and know-how,” said Park Jin-hyo, head of the Network Technology Institute of SK Telecom. “We will capitalize on our network, solution and terminal technologies to win the contract for the emergency network pilot project.”

Other mobile carriers are busy trying to win the contract for the pilot project with their task force teams (TFT) playing the central role.

LG Uplus is preparing a proposal based on project analysis, and KT is also making preparations for the proposal, e.g. institutional business. In particular, KT is determined to concentrate its enterprise-wide resources on protection of citizens regardless of profitability.