Nokia stated that its future 6G plans in South Korea involve collaborating with major mobile carriers in the country
Finnish vendor Nokia is seeing South Korea as a likely candidate to commercialize 6G wireless networks and related services by 2029, local news service Korea JoongAng Daily reported.
“We plan to support the rapid deployment of 6G from the start, including low-band frequencies,” said James Han, Nokia Korea’s customer chief technology officer. “Ongoing discussions are ranging from 470 to 690 MHz spectrum bands, and these discussions will be finalized at the World Radiocommunications Conferences in 2027, after which frequency allocation will proceed in Korea accordingly,” the executive said during its annual Amplify Korea event, which took place in Seoul this week.
Nokia also identified extended reality (XR) as key content for monetization in the 5G-Advanced (5G-A) and 6G era.
Nokia also stated that its future 6G plans in South Korea involve collaborating with major mobile carriers in the country. The vendor has already partnered with all three of Korea’s leading telecom companies — KT, SK Telecom and LG Uplus ,with a focus on research towards future 6G systems, according to the report.
In May, Korean carrier KT partnered with Nokia to carry out research in the 6G field.
The two companies agreed to collaborate on developing advanced Open RAN technology for 6G mobile communications and ultra-wideband wireless access technology using candidate frequencies for 6G. The pair also agreed to closely prepare for the 6G era, focusing on discovering future services and innovating infrastructure that can be provided through 6G technology.
KT said that this collaboration with Nokia will secure global leadership in setting standards and commercializing 6G mobile communications.
In November 2023, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT unveiled its KRW440.4 billion ($324.5 million) research and development plan for future 6G networks.
The ministry noted that the plan includes developing technologies related to wireless communications, mobile core networks, 6G wired networks, 6G systems and the standardization of 6G.
The ministry also said it will work to standardize the locally-developed 6G technologies in line with the international standardization requirements, which are expected to start being established as early as next year, the report stated.
South Korea’s 6G plan also involves the development of technologies for the upper-mid band, which covers the frequency range of 7 GHz to 24 GHz, to advance the 5G network service.
The ministry also aims to showcase the intermediate outcome of its 6G network development in 2026 to play a leading role in setting the international standards for the next-generation network service.
The Korean government had previously announced its K-Network 2030 strategy, with the aim of boosting private-public cooperation to develop 6G technologies, innovate around software-based next-generation mobile networks and strengthen the network supply chain.
The standardization process for future 6G systems is in its early stages. At a previous plenary session, 3GPP decided to complete the standard specifications for commercial 6G networks and terminals by 2029.
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