South Korea's LG U+ has teamed up with Ericsson to develop 5G and IoT technologies including narrowband LTE.
The agreement will also cover development of SDN and NFV technologies, improvements to the core network to ready it for 5G, global CDNs and IoT-Advanced technologies.
The collaboration will initially run until 2020, the year 5G technology is expected to be commercialized. It will involve joint research, testing and the development of equipment and technology.
Ericsson and LG U+ will also establish technology and frequency strategies and work to prepare a roadmap for long-term network development.
We will prepare for the 5G era based on a combination of our network management know-how and Ericsson's strong technological power,” LG U+ CTO Kim Suntae said.
“The two companies will lead network evolution by introducing advanced network technologies to domestic and overseas markets through close collaboration.”
LG U+ became South Korea's first operator to launch LTE services in July 2011. The operator launched the first VoLTE service in August 2012 and went live with LTE-Advanced in July 2013.