Techmaker, operated and collaborated on by SK Square (CEO Park Jeong-ho), SK Telecom (CEO Yoo Young-sang), and global mobile operator Deutsche Telekom, has successfully commercialized an 'Indoor Booster 5G' tailored for the European region just 11 months after its establishment, and is expected to grow into a global technology leader.

SK Telecom announced on the 21st that its joint venture partner, TechMaker, recently launched an 'indoor 5G repeater' in Germany.

TechMaker is a technology joint venture established last December by Vice Chairman Park Jeong-ho and Deutsche Telekom Chairman Tim Hottges, who joined forces to pursue global technology business based on SK Telecom's 5G technology and Deutsche Telekom's business competitiveness. Subsequently, following the spin-off of SK Telecom on November 1 of this year, it was incorporated as a subsidiary under SK Square.

The repeater developed by Techmaker is a product of a type being introduced for the first time in the European market, and it significantly improves 5G speed and coverage inside buildings by receiving frequency signals with an external antenna and transmitting them indoors.

Most European countries have strict building management standards, making it difficult to use 5G indoors. Accordingly, indoor 5G repeaters are emerging as an alternative for efficiently deploying 5G in offices or homes that frequently use video streaming, education, and video conferencing.

Deutsche Telekom has begun selling indoor 5G repeaters developed by Techmaker, starting in the southeastern German state of Bavaria, led by Munich. As part of its strategy to expand 5G coverage, the company plans to expand sales nationwide in the future.

Business (B2B) and individual (B2C) customers can rent and use indoor 5G repeaters for a monthly fee of 19.95 euros (approximately 27,000 won). They will also be provided free of charge depending on customer needs.

Techmaker has successfully developed a repeater by combining the latest 5G technologies from SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom. It supports tri-band 800MHz, 1.8GHz, and 2.1GHz frequency bands and features high security levels required by the German financial industry.

Ahead of commercialization, 5G and LTE repeaters developed in Korea were optimized for the European usage environment and underwent a thorough verification process, including conducting pilot services for several months in eight major German cities (Berlin, Hamburg, Bonn, Cologne, Munich, Frankfurt, Leipzig, and Darmstadt).

The manufacturing and supply of repeater equipment was undertaken by Solid, a domestic company specializing in repeaters. Mutual growth is expected through the expansion of sales in the European market by this small but strong Korean company. Solid developed the equipment in cooperation with Techmaker from the early stages of repeater development and is supplying it directly to Deutsche Telekom.

Techmaker plans to generate revenue from a certain portion of the repeater sales as technology royalties. In the future, beyond repeaters, the plan is to continuously develop new technologies in various fields such as digital infrastructure, network solutions, and platforms, and introduce them to the global market.

Lee Heon, Managing Director of SK Square, stated, “We expect TechMaker to grow into a global technology leader through close cooperation between SK Square, SK Telecom, and Deutsche Telekom.”

Ha Hyung-il, Head of Corporate Development at SK Telecom, stated, “The TechMaker repeater business is the fruit of the technology development know-how that SK Telecom has accumulated over the past 20 years,” adding, “We will continue to create cases of global expansion utilizing SK Telecom’s innovative ICT technologies.”