EU and South Korea working together to develop 5G networks

The South Korean government announced today that it will collaborate with the EU in developing new technologies, set standards and allocate radio frequencies for next-generation mobile information and communication networks.

Under the terms of the agreement, a new joint working group will be established, which will "plan and set up joint research and development projects." The joint venture would ensure global interoperability of 5G networks, as well as create a set of global communication standards for 5G networks while providing ICT services for the cloud and the Internet of Things.

South Korea has always been at the forefront of mobile technology, becoming the first country to implement LTE-A networks. Earlier this year, the South Korean government mentioned that commercialisation of 5G would occur as early as 2020.

Handset vendors are also testing out methodologies for successfully implementing 5G services, with Samsung stating earlier this year that it made a breakthrough in the development of 5G technology. The South Korean manufacturer mentioned that it found a way to transmit large volumes of data using a much higher frequency band.

In addition to handset manufacturers like Samsung and LG, mobile carriers like SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus are hard at work in becoming the first carriers to offer 5G services. Overall, over $1.57 billion will be invested over the next seven years to bring 5G networks to life.

The EU's involvement would significantly bolster South Korea's efforts, while being mutually beneficial to both parties. EU digital commissioner Neelie Kroes said that the collaboration on 5G networks would put the EU back in the driver's seat. She said, "In the '90s we were in the driver seat, talking about GSM, so it would nice to be back in that position." While the EU was slow at implementing the 4G standard, the European Commission is investing over $948 million to drive research into 5G technologies "without delay."

Are you as excited as us about the upcoming 5G network?

Source: Yonhap News

Harish Jonnalagadda
Senior Editor - Asia

Harish Jonnalagadda is a Senior Editor overseeing Asia for Android Central, Windows Central's sister site. When not reviewing phones, he's testing PC hardware, including video cards, motherboards, gaming accessories, and keyboards.

57 Comments
  • 5G???
  • Seems faster...
  • Cogman: No Windows Phone devices with cognitive radios sooner than 20-20 ..  8-)
  • and in India we are still using 2G..lol
  • Sale India mein bhi 4g h bas mehenga h.Kuch bhi mt bol
  • Haha true. Mostly the world out there still in 3G / 2G. Not even 4G.
  • when 5G out, the radiation we get are more than other, tower frequency will be even more higher than 4G (if 4G is 1GHz, then 5G will be 10 GHz, for faster transferring data)
  • Not surprizing since South Korea has the world's fastest per capita internet speeds.
  • And here we are still struggling with 3g
  • Us too!!
  • Alberta will get it fast.. Oil country! Lots of lTE here..
  • LOL 5g ?? don't even have proper 3g yet !!  
  • 5G!! I haven't even seen 4G here in my country
  • Still using ADSL at home,4G is even faster.
  • No 4G here in Himachal and they are working on 5G.
  • 4g is way overrated, it drains your battery like nothing else, just to load a webpage 1 second faster
  • You're right. Those 3G radios are power guzzlers. I just wish there was a way to reduce that.
  • Well more fights for speed and bandwidth....hell good for internet world...eeehaaa
  • 3g already is 42mbps fast. And I'm supposed to have 4G coverage in my country soon. Is there really a need for 5G ? What, are we going to steam 8k movies on our phones? E don't even have 1080p television properly yet
  • Pure marketing my friend, pure marketing and money...
  • I'd like to think in the long term 5G+ or what ever, will evenutally replace our landlines or any connection actually needed in the house. People already use 4G in remote areas as an alternative to home broadband. 4G is already beating out the speeds most wireless routers can provide broadband to you at. The issue is although 3G supports 42mbps, the more people on that antenna the slower the speed, so if you were to try and effectively sell blanket WiFi, the realistic speed would dramatically drop due to high useage. 4G is better, move on to 5G and it may actually become viable. The connected world is becoming more and more apparently, we already rely on it. Now imaging if you could access all of your files in the cloud, almost as if you had a direct connection to the drive. This is what I would like to see eventually, and this is why there will be a 5G, 6G and so on. Techonology progresses, and things improve with it!
  • Yeah, I mean fuck innovation and progress. Really? I'm pretty sure people were fine with Minitel, and 56kbps internet, feature phones, etc some time ago. Posted via WPCentral App.
  • South Korea? I should read more about science in South Korea...
  • Yeah you know the really smart people that you thought were dumb. They been leading the way for a long time now. Shame you had your head in the sand eh!!!!!
  • What's with that offence? I haven't said that they're dumb. I said that I simply haven't heard about South Korea in technology or science news. So that I should read about that
  • Never heard of Samsung or LG, or any of their technological innovation? (Serious question, no intention to offend you) Posted via WPCentral App.
  • 5G + Qualcomm's 8-Core 4K Supporting Processors + 256GB Internal Storage + 128GB Micro SD Cards + Miracast = WTH.
  • +920
  • Powah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • My next phone :D
  • This technology in the real sense is here with us already. It's achievable but these guys will rather climb up these steps piecemeal and keep us hoping. At least L1520 support 128gig SD and since 64gig internal memory has been available since 4yrs ago (Nokia N9), 256 gig should be around by now.
  • Netherlands uses 4G. its fast enough imo. More is always in some case's better. I wonder what the difference will be with 5G. Hope we can use our mobiles as teleports when its out. :P
  • If it's to save battery life, then I'm in :) Heck, mine doesn't even let me use 3G all the time...
     
  • In Panama, you put three people together from the same carrier, and the data stream goes down. We pay for 3G+, but don''t even have data most of the time... and that''s with all four available carriers.
  • Unless I have really no choice at all. Will never use technology from South Korea.
  • Your phone might have at least one technology from them. ;)
  • Good luck.  Almost everything electronic has south korean technology in it.  Even iPhones have a TON of korean tech.  I believe all oled nokia phone displays are made by samsung.  Most Nokias also have samsung chips inside too.  Not to mention, there is a good chance the memory chips on the SD card you are putting into your phone or tablet uses south korean NAND chips. 
  • So you're planning to get rid of all your electronic stuff? Posted via WPCentral App.
  • EU digital commissioner Neelie Kroes said that the collaboration on 5G networks would put the EU back in the driver's seat. He She said, "In the '90s we were in the driver seat, talking about GSM, so it would nice to be back in that position." Neelie Kroes is a woman... Also, what would the advantage of 5g over 4g be? Additional bandwith is rather superfluous IMO, or are we supposed to replace our cable internet with 5G as well while streaming multiple 4K movies simultaneously?
  • The advantage is that the EU can spend 1billion dollars of our money and expect the carriers to pay over the odds for the licenses, instead of just allowing the markets to do their thing and saving a cool $1billion.
  • Here in US, I'm using 4G, but but wifi 3 times faster, lol
  • Well 4G is only a name of a brand, so the operators can sell more. LTE Isn't the same thing as 4G. 4G is (LTE-A) The operators sare just stupid to name it 4G when it is 3.9G, cheaters they are. 4G in Murica is even more cheating. 
  • Now I know better.
  • If i remember it right Sweden was the first country in the world to make 4G commercialy available. I think 4G got implemented in 2009 here in Sweden.   Have a nice day everyone and make sure to enjoy the nice weather.
  • We're talking about LTE-A not 4G. Have a nice day :)
  • We better watch out for big bad Sweden here.
  • Lol 5G? I've been on 6G for the past week. 3.4 trillion Gb/s. Yes, you read that right.
  • Enough Internet for today Son go to sleep now. -_-
  • Go home your drunk
  • Son, I'm gonna have to ask you to stay off drugs and the internet.
  • Just today, Switzerland startet the 4G (LTE-A) net, so time to research the next one :P
  • Well...4G LTE isn't roboust across the US. And I'm skeptical about the pricing of the 5G as well.
  • Errm, 4GLTE is HUGE in the US lol. Check Verizon Wireless's coverage maps; they show you each carrier's amassing LTE coverage along with its own. Lotsa of red on that one ;) and soon, VoLTE will come down, giving networks true 4G usage of both voice and data...I seriously cannot wait.
  • Looks like the EU learned its lesson on 4G services...;) data drives revenue, services, and life! Now if only we found a way to get global services to travel ANYWHERE you wanted, paid one flat monthly fee, AND get talk, text, and data. But looking forward to this...5G....mmmm, seems faster!
  • I'm sure tmobile will advertise 6G next month
  • yeah it's good to hear that . 5G must bring cheaper and faster cellular data .. but 4G in my country is still in development . haa , not much 4G coverage in my country, just major city that supports 4G
  • India rocks with 2g net!