Korea and the EU have agreed to cooperate in developing information and communications technology (ICT) that includes next-generation 5G mobile networks.

On June 16, Korean Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning Choi Mun-kee and Neelie Kroes, the vice president for the European Commission responsible for its digital agenda, signed a joint declaration in Seoul to join hands in the ICT sector. In order to achieve sustainable development of the sector, the two sides agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in ICT and to closely collaborate in developing 5G technology, in defining 5G standards and in drawing up radio frequency policies.

To implement the agreement, Korea and the EU will form an ICT working group to discuss related policies, covering 5G technology, cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT), and will also pursue joint research projects. They agreed to cooperate on fostering a global consensus on the definition of 5G, harmonizing radio spectrum policy to ensure global interoperability, and on preparing global standardization for 5G in order to develop the new technology in a timely manner.

The two sides intend to reinforce international cooperation in the context of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the WRC (World Radiocommunication Conference) and the 3GPP, a Europe-based association of communication standards. They also recognized the importance of public-private partnerships for the development of 5G technology and decided to encourage interaction and exchanges between industry associations dealing with 5G in both Korea and the EU.

The speed of transmission with 5G technology is as fast as 1 Gbps, taking only 1 second to download an 800-megabyte movie. It is much faster than the current state-of-the-art LTE-Advanced technology, which takes 40 seconds to download such a movie. When 5G technology becomes real, people will live in a truly fully-connected society in which they are online with various devices and equipment at all times, everywhere they go, receiving a constant stream of information.



In an article titled "EU, South Korea to Ally on Faster Mobile Access" published on June 16, the Wall Street Journal reported that, "The agreement could be crucial for the EU," and that this would benefit both Europe's mobile-equipment manufacturers -- such as Ericsson, Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent -- and, among others, Korea's Samsung Electronics.

The newspaper also wrote that the European Commission intends to select the first set of projects to fund at the end of this year, with €125 million to allocate. The partnership will be led by two groups: Europe's 5G PPP, which is based in Belgium and includes European technology and telecom companies, such as Telefónica and Nokia; and, its Korean equivalent, the 5G Forum. European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes was quoted as saying, "Work on 5G should start the sooner the better. It is extremely important that we take the lead again."



"We intend to develop core technologies for 5G and to show off these technologies during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. We will also commercialize 5G for the first time in the world by 2020," said Minister Choi. "It is meaningful that the two sides declared close cooperation to prepare for a 5G era."

By Limb Jae-un
Korea.net Staff Writer
jun2@korea.kr