SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom have forged a technology development partnership covering services, IoT and development of 5G standards.
The partnership, announced Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, aims to seek new growth opportunities in Asian and European markets.
Under the partnership, SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom will work together to develop standardized technologies including SDDC (Software-Defined Data Center) and 5G enabling technologies.
In the area of 5G R&D, the two companies will pay particular attention to key 5G technologies such as network slicing and mobile edge computing.
SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom will also make joint efforts to expand markets for their solutions and products and services.
The two companies will conduct a feasibility test covering the potential commercialization of a cloud streaming product provided by SK Telecom’s subsidiary Entrix. They aim to launch the product in Deutsche Telekom’s footprint by the second quarter of 2016.
The move will establish a beachhead for the South Korean operator to expand sales of the product in Europe, the companies said in a joint statement.
Moreover, the two companies have agreed to introduce SK Telecom’s pico beamer to Germany in the second quarter of 2016 and then to other countries in Europe. They also agreed to launch Deutsche Telekom’s in-car Wi-Fi solution in the Korean market.
SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom will also cooperate in the international roaming service area, including quality improvements, signature of Service Level Agreements and pursuit of LTE based roaming services.
They will combine their efforts to investigate smart city solutions, collaborating in IoT to develop innovative services in an urban setting.