SK Telecom continues to lead in next-generation technologies with the development of a Wi‑Fi solution that promises up to four times the speed of current standards.
The goal of this new Wi‑Fi is to deliver speeds comparable to 5G. Based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard, the technology can reach speeds up to 4.8 Gbps — nearly four times faster than many existing Wi‑Fi implementations.
Current 802.11ac Wi‑Fi supports theoretical speeds up to 1.3 Gbps. While most users will never approach those peak rates on their home broadband connections, higher wireless capacity helps ensure the Wi‑Fi network does not become a bottleneck as device density and application demands increase.
SK Telecom’s implementation targets dense, high-traffic environments by incorporating Dynamic Sensitivity Control (DSC) and MIMO‑OFDMA, a multi-user version of OFDM that improves simultaneous access for many devices.
“By introducing next‑generation Wi‑Fi technology that can perform as fast as 5G, we at SK Telecom have successfully laid the foundation to offer better mobile services,” said Park Jin‑hyo, Senior Vice President and Head of Network Technology R&D Center at SK Telecom. Park added, “We are preparing to commercialize the technology and will continue to innovate to deliver differentiated services to our customers.”
SK Telecom previously announced in October 2014 that it had begun deploying 10 Gbps broadband to select customers in the Seoul and Anyang areas. That service uses NG‑PON2 (next‑generation passive optical network 2) technology, developed jointly with SK Telecom’s Network Technology Institute and specified by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
NG‑PON2 is an optical access technology capable of transporting up to 40 Gbps of traffic. SK Telecom achieved stable 10 Gbps consumer services by securing transmission capability up to 40 Gbps between the operator and equipment located near customer premises.
As of the fourth quarter of 2016, South Korea had the world’s fastest national average internet connection at 26.1 Mbps, according to the State of the Internet report from Akamai Technologies.
SK Telecom has set up a testbed for the new Wi‑Fi technology at the T Open Lab, the company’s R&D center in the Bundang district. The test environment will be used to evaluate performance across various deployment scenarios, including high‑density traffic conditions.
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