SK Telecom Expands its LTE Auto Roaming Service

Press-release SK Telecom, 28.03.2013, via LTE Depot.

• Scheduled to launch LTE auto roaming service in the Philippines on 1 April 2013 under partnership with Globe
• Aims to expand LTE roaming service throughout the world after launching LTE devices that function in four different frequency bands in the second quarter of 2013

SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) today announced that it, together with Globe Telecom, a telecommunications company in the Philippines, will begin offering LTE auto roaming service on 1 April 2013. This follows the company's previous LTE roaming service launches in Hong Kong (1 June 2012) and Singapore (1 March 2013) under partnership with CSL and SingTel, respectively.

The commercialization of LTE auto roaming service with Globe (the Philippines) and SingTel (Singapore) follows a consensus among members of the Bridge Alliance (BA) that LTE data roaming takes an important role in the future direction of next-generation roaming services, thus calling for strategic partnerships between carriers around the world. With successful LTE roaming service launches under cooperation with CSL, SingTel and Globe, SK Telecom is strongly positioning itself as the center of cooperation in the Asia Pacific region.

Moreover, SK Telecom plans to launch LTE devices that can function in four different frequency bands – i.e. 850MHz, 1.8GHz, 2.1GHz and 2.6GHz - within the second quarter of this year. These devices carry a great meaning as they mark the first Korean LTE device that can operate in 2.6GHz band, which is chosen by most mobile carriers across the world for LTE service. With these devices, customers will be able to enjoy LTE service in other countries just like they do in Korea.

Kim Young-Sup, Senior Vice President and Head of Collaboration Marketing Office at SK Telecom said, "As the first company in the world to commercialize LTE roaming, SK Telecom is committed to enhancing customer experience through seamless global LTE auto roaming. Going forward, SK Telecom will expand its strategic partnerships with mobile carriers across the globe, while also focusing on enriching the line-up of devices that function in multiple frequency bands."

SK Telecom crosses 5 mn LTE subscribers

With the introduction of diverse LTE price plans like LTE Ting and LTE Golden Age, the number of SK Telecom's LTE subscribers in their teens and fifties or older increased by 500,000 and 650,000 respectively during the same period, diversifying the LTE customer base. Since the launch of LTE service, SK Telecom's LTE customers have used a total of 33.5 petabytes (or 1024 terabytes) of data. Of the total, 46 percent was used for multimedia contents, which is 10 percentage points higher than that of 3G customers (36 percent). In August, LTE customers' daily average data usage for YouTube was 3.2 times greater than that of 3G users. //voicendata.ciol.com

SK Telecom deploys VoLTE - world first!

SK Telecom launches VoLTE today. World first! Sprint plan VoLTE before 2012 end. South Korean company prefer to use HD Voice name for the new service. HD Voice over LTE is meant to vastly improve call quality and reduce latency for the customers, while lessening network strain and offering new revenue-making opportunities for SK Telecom.

HD Voice means 50-7000 Hz bandwidth instead of 300-2400 Hz like in GSM/3G.

Who can use it? At the moment only users of Samsung Galaxy S3, with software that enables HD Voice capability.

Worldwide, Infonetics expects Voice over LTE to gain 300,000 subscribers by year's end.

\\engadget.com  \\arstechnica.com

SK Telecom showcases VoLTE on Island

SK Telecom took team of journalists and photographers to the remote island of Baekyeong (near border between South and North Korea). There they saw a number of locals test voice and video calls on LTE-enabled handsets provided by the carrier. And the quality of communication seemed to range between solid and exceptional!

SK Telecom officials claim VoLTE will provide enough of value-added experience that customers will be glad to pay for. SK Telecom branded its VoLTE offerings as "HD Voice". Compared to the existing 3G voice calls, it offers up to 2.2 times better sound quality and a twice faster call connection speed, requiring less than 0.3-2.5 seconds in call connecting time. \koreatimes.co.kr

SK Telecom to export its technology to Vodafone

Vodafone (UK) interesting in S.Korean SK Telecom's Smart Push technology as part of the move to LTE / zdnet.com

SK Telecom run LTE network band 5 2011.07.01 (>3 mln subs now) and developing LTE band 3.