Samsung Electronics, the world's largest handset maker, is making aggressive efforts to launch products based on the fifth-generation (5G) network in time for upcoming international sport events, its senior official said Tuesday.
While 5G has yet to become a standard, the South Korean tech giant has been honing in on research and development jointly with the government and foreign institutes to develop advanced products running on the network that will succeed 4G.
"I'd like to emphasize that the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are the perfect times to introduce the key 5G technologies to the world," Cheun Kyung-whoon, senior vice president and head of the communications research team of DMC R&D Centers at Samsung Electronics Corp., said during the 5G Global Summit.
The summit was held on the sidelines of the 19th International Telecommunications Union Plenipotentiary Conference underway in the southern port city of Busan.
The flagship unit of Samsung Group has been an official partner of the Olympic Games for wireless telecommunications equipment since the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998.
Under a deal effective until 2020, the company will support South Korea's PyeongChang Winter Olympics in 2018 and the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020 by supplying a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops, to athletes and other participants.
"Even up until last year, the word 5G was very obscure to the general public. However, our gathering today at this site is a testimony to the fact that 5G can be reached and is very real," he said. "5G is a global industry and will be a global culture."
Samsung Electronics has set the latest record speed for 5G, 7.5 Gbps while stationary and 1.2Gbps while in a vehicle traveling at faster than 100 km per hour, during a trial last week.
The Galaxy phone maker also teamed up with the nation's No. 1 carrier, SK Telecom, to develop the 5G industry, seeking early advancement in one of the highly watched mobile sectors.
Samsung reiterated its commitment to global efforts to develop new technologies and infrastructure to open a new network era.
"Samsung, as a company, is also deeply involved in the global research activities with China, the U.S. and Japan," Cheun said.
"It will only be successful if we all work together as a global team to harness our capacities and create an ecosystem." (Yonhap)
