Samsung has announced that it is powering the world’s first nationwide public safety network that complies with 3GPP standards.
The PS-LTE network, launched initially in South Korea, operates on the 700 MHz spectrum and delivers fast, reliable connectivity for emergency responders across more than 330 organisations, including police, firefighters, emergency medical teams, and the military.
This deployment supports simultaneous transmission for up to 2,500 user devices per cell—more than double the capacity of previous-generation solutions—ensuring robust communications during large-scale incidents.
Seungil Kim, Vice President and Head of Korea Business, Networks Business at Samsung, said:
“Samsung is proud to take part in building the world’s first nationwide PS-LTE network based on 3GPP standards in Korea, leveraging our end-to-end PS-LTE solutions.
A reliable network is critical for real-time communication among multiple institutions in case of emergencies. We will continue to offer advanced PS-LTE solutions to bolster Korea’s PS-LTE network, meeting the highest standards for reliability, performance, and security.”
The service uses Samsung’s Mission-Critical Push-to-Talk (MCPTT) and includes multimedia broadcast features enabled by evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS), allowing efficient distribution of voice, video and data to many responders simultaneously.
Although the rollout has so far focused on Korea in collaboration with local mobile operators, the success of this nationwide PS-LTE network establishes a model that could be replicated in other markets worldwide, including the UK.
Thomas Riedel, Head of Samsung Networks Europe, commented:
“Samsung continues to advance its MCPTT solutions, which can further enhance the mission-critical network capabilities in the UK to support stronger collaborative abilities across emergency response teams.”
Samsung was selected in 2016 to lead an end-to-end PS-LTE deployment and began construction in 2018, completing the nationwide rollout in March 2021.
(Photo by camilo jimenez on Unsplash)
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