South Korea's KT yesterday launched the first commercial LTE-Broadcast service based on eMBMS (evolved multimedia broadcast and multicast service).
Samsung revealed it provided the network equipment for the rollout, which is initially being made available on the vendor's Galaxy Note 3 handset.
KT is calling the LTE eMBMS service Olleh LTE Play. The service will offer HD video broadcasting and multicasting for the operator's LTE customers.
Samsung also revealed it plans to collaborate with KT on joint marketing campaigns for the new service, and will seek partnerships with other mobile operators worldwide to promote the LTE eMBMS technology.
The development of LTE-Broadcast is picking up steam. Australia's Telstra commenced trials of the technology last year and the Philippines' Smart successfully trialed video multicast over LTE in November.
South Korea is increasingly playing host to the latest LTE developments. Last week, SK Telecom announced it had developed tri-band carrier aggregation technology, promising LTE-A speeds of up to 450Mbps.
The government has also committed to investing $1.5 billion towards the development of 5G technology, with the aim of making the standard commercially available by 2020.