Leading 5G standardization, the two companies began discussing 5G requirements and technical specifications last year.
Pledge to strengthen R&D cooperation with global 5G innovation research group OCP and M-CORD project

SK Telecom is partnering with Verizon, the largest telecommunications operator in the United States, to lead 5G standardization.

SK Telecom announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Verizon, the largest telecommunications operator in the United States, for 5G standardization and joint research.

At the MOU signing ceremony held at SK Telecom’s headquarters in Euljiro on the 8th, SK Telecom’s Chief Technology Officer Choi Jin-sung and Verizon’s Vice President and Chief Information and Technology Architect (CITA) Roger Gunarni attended and pledged close cooperation for 5G mobile network standardization and joint research and development.

In the memorandum of understanding signed today, both sides agreed to cooperate to ensure that the 5G joint standard discussed since last year is adopted by global mobile telecommunications standardization organizations such as 3GPP, and to make joint efforts to discover innovative 5G services.

As the two companies have decided to take a joint stance in the 5G standardization competition, it is expected that they will not only gain an advantageous position in future 5G standardization competition but also influence the landscape of the 5G telecommunications service market.

Following this, the two companies held a technology cooperation meeting to share the current status of technology development regarding 5G, IoT, and infrastructure virtualization, and open source-based data center hardware infrastructureThey also agreed to strengthen cooperation in the R&D project OCP (Open Compute Project)* and the cloud-based regional specialized service platform research project M-CORD (Mobile Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter)*.

Meanwhile, the two companies have been steadily discussing 5G requirements, technical specifications, and plans since last year. In particular, in February of this year, they formed the 5G TSA (open Trial Specification Alliance), a 5G test specification consortium, to discuss 5G pilot service specifications and have been leading 5G technical standards.

SK Telecom Chief Technology Officer Choi Jin-sung stated, “We expect this MOU signing to serve as a stepping stone for a leap forward in 5G cooperation between the two companies,” adding, “We anticipate that collaborative achievements in the 5G technology standardization and service development currently under full-scale discussion will bring the dawn of the 5G era one step closer.”

Roger Gunarni, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Verizon, said, “The signing of this MOU is the result of both companies’ efforts to revitalize the 5G ecosystem and lead the global commercial development of 5G technology,” adding, “Verizon will continue to cooperate with SK Telecom to develop 5G technology.”