▲ KT AI Mobility Business Unit Director Choi Kang-rim (right) and Swift Navigation CEO Timothy Harris (screen) (Photo courtesy of KT)


Centimeter-level coordinates can be derived even when autonomous driving sensors are unstable
Plans to expand services to autonomous driving, C-ITS, delivery, and transportation logistics areas

Digico KT is strengthening its leadership in the mobility market by joining hands with a global leading location information tech company and launching an ultra-precision positioning business.

KT announced on the 29th of last month that it has signed a technology and business cooperation agreement with Swift Navigation of Silicon Valley, USA, and will begin full-scale ultra-precision positioning business.

Ultra-precision positioning service provides accurate information by reducing the error of several to tens of meters (m) that occurs in existing location services provided through GPS, etc., to centimeters (cm).

Swift Navigation is a global leading technology company in the field of ultra-precision positioning, with platforms and solutions that can correct positioning errors and calculate accurate locations.

KT will be able to provide ultra-precision positioning services in various mobility areas by linking these solutions with the Reference Station, a standard information generation device that can correct errors in satellite signals directly constructed with nationwide coverage.

KT has been continuously discovering excellent solutions from Silicon Valley in the US to accelerate its growth as a Digico, and since last year, it has formed an in-house TF for collaboration with Swift Navigation and has been preparing for technology verification and commercial service development in Korea and the US.

The demand for accurate location information has been steadily increasing as mobile services such as autonomous driving, robots, and drones have grown rapidly, moving from the existing focus on smartphones and navigation.

According to the LBS Market Trend Report, the global location-based service market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 23%, reaching approximately USD 126 billion by 2025, and the domestic location information industry trend report also forecasted that the domestic market will reach approximately KRW 2.7 trillion in the same year.

The satellite-based location information service that is currently the most widely used uses only satellite signals from the modules of each service terminal, so there is no way to correct signal refraction and radio interference that occur during the signal arrival process, resulting in a large error from the actual location.

In addition, existing ultra-precision location information was not provided nationwide, which resulted in many limitations in mobility services that require accurate and safe services.

To solve these problems, KT installed its own reference stations in branches across the country, including Jeju Island, for the first time in Korea, and completed the construction of a nationwide network specializing in ultra-precision positioning.

KT repeatedly observes satellite signals from a reference station, analyzes satellite orbit and atmospheric (ionosphere, troposphere, etc.) errors that occur in real time, and applies error modeling, etc. on its own correction server to generate correction information.

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▲ Explanation of KT’s ultra-precision positioning service concept (Image provided by KT)

Through correction information generated from the KT base station and correction server, it will be possible to provide precise location information by combining GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) signals received from various satellites such as GPS (USA), Galileo (Europe), Glonass (Russia), and Beidou (China), as well as 5G and LTE signals.

The ultra-precision positioning information provided by KT can be applied to autonomous vehicles, heavy equipment, unmanned agricultural machinery, UAM, drones, and even smartphones.

Especially in cases such as autonomous driving where safety is important such as stable driving and accident prevention, various types of sensors such as LiDAR and cameras are used to obtain accurate location information, but if KT's ultra-precision location information service is applied, it is possible to derive accurate location coordinates at the centimeter level (cm) even when these sensors are unstable, which is expected to ensure the safety of autonomous driving while reducing unnecessary sensors and costs, thereby promoting commercialization.

Furthermore, it is expected to expand the field of C-ITS (Cyber Intelligent Transport Systems) construction, introducing autonomous cooperative driving functions that exchange precise locations and events between vehicles and infrastructure or between vehicles, thereby contributing to strengthening safety on roads nationwide and expanding the national social safety net, such as supporting emergency rescue.

KT plans to expand its location information services to encompass both B2B and B2C in the future, not only in the autonomous driving and C-ITS areas, but also in the logistics area such as delivery and transportation.

Choi Kang-rim, executive director of KT AI Mobility Business Unit, said, “This partnership with Swift Navigation “Through joint technology development, we have secured differentiated competitiveness in the ultra-precision location-based service market,” he said. “Based on KT’s expertise in ultra-precision positioning specialized infrastructure and mobility business, we will play a leading role in discovering new location-based services in various industrial fields and creating an ecosystem for related companies to utilize.”

Timothy Harris, CEO of Swift Navigation, said, “We expect that our business partnership with KT will provide positive momentum for our entry into the Asian market, starting with Korea,” and “KT’s network capabilities and experience will be of great help in our future business expansion.”

Meanwhile, KT has been developing a connected car business encompassing communications, software, and content since 2004.

Since then, the company has expanded its business areas to include transportation DX, such as local government C-ITS projects in Jeju and Ulsan, and digital logistics.

In addition, the company plans to expand its leadership in the mobility market by accelerating its ultra-precision positioning business.