The three major mobile carriers and the Radio Promotion Association of Korea (RAPA) are joining hands to support the fostering of intelligent IoT sectors and expansion of the ecosystem for domestic small and medium-sized enterprises.

SKT announced on the 7th that it signed a business agreement (MOU) with KT, LGU+, and the Radio Promotion Association of Korea (RAPA) to foster small and medium-sized manufacturers developing 5G IoT products linked to telecommunication networks. For this purpose, a signing ceremony was held at the Mokdong office building of the Korea Radio Promotion Association on the 5th.

At the event, Yang Yong-yeol, Secretary General of the Korea Radio Promotion Association, Ryu Tak-gi, Head of Infrastructure Technology at SK Telecom, Kang Bong-soo, Head of Quality Innovation Center at LG Uplus, and Lee Jun-ho, Head of Device Marketing at KT attended and agreed to actively cooperate to expand the ecosystem of small and medium-sized enterprises in the intelligent IoT field.

The purpose of this agreement is to help small and medium-sized manufacturers shorten the period required for their products to pass quality verification by telecommunications companies and reduce development costs.

Through this agreement, the three mobile carriers plan to support small and medium-sized businesses by: △sharing 5G IoT-related communication network linkage technology specifications, △providing regular information on each carrier’s test environment, △utilizing RAPA test results for carrier inspection tests of 5G IoT products, and △providing technical advice and consulting for small and medium-sized businesses.

In addition, we plan to strengthen technology mentoring for small and medium-sized enterprises along with support for hardware and software-level commercialization of IoT devices.

This year, RAPA will establish a terminal, component, and antenna technology development and telecommunications company-specific testing environment related to 5G non-standalone mode (NSA), standalone mode (SA), RedCap (RedCap, a technology that reduces terminal prices by reducing the bandwidth and number of antennas of 5G IoT terminals), IoT, etc. at the 'IoT Technology Support Center'.

Song Jeong-su, Executive Vice President of RAPA, said, “It is urgent to activate win-win cooperation to support domestic small and medium-sized enterprises in the hyper-connected 5G and 6G IoT fields in the AI era,” and added, “Through this business agreement, RAPA will spare no support so that it can serve as a bridgehead for win-win cooperation between large and small and medium-sized enterprises in the 5G IoT field.”

Ryu Tak-gi, SK Telecom Infrastructure Technology Manager &“As mobile communications continue to evolve to 5G Advanced and 6G, we are entering an era of ‘hyper-connected AI infrastructure’ where AI is integrated,” he said. “We will actively support domestic small and medium-sized enterprises to grow into leading companies in the intelligent IoT industry and expand the ecosystem based on various products and services.”