KT (Korea Telecom) awarded Ericsson a 5G commercial contract to enable the nationwide launch of commercial 5G services in Korea starting early April. Under this initial commercial contract, the first since Ericsson was selected as a 5G supplier to KT in November 2018, Ericsson is providing 3GPP standards-based 5G New Radio (NR) hardware and software from Ericsson’s complete 5G platform to cover KT’s 3.5 GHz Non-Standalone (NSA) network.

Korean operators joined forces to target early April as the go-live date for the world’s first nationwide provision of 5G commercial services in time to support commercially available 5G smartphones.

KT’s planned nationwide 5G network plays a central role. KT subscribers with 5G smartphones are set to be among the first globally to benefit from the enhanced mobile broadband enabled by 5G through seamless and ultra-low latency user experiences.

In addition to immersive media, KT’s 5G commercialisation use case plans covers: smart factories; safety; drones; and connected vehicles.

Ericsson 5G can also enable KT to open up IoT and Industry 4.0 opportunities to Korean enterprises on a global scale.