Chief technology officers from leading Northeast Asian mobile carriers and network equipment manufacturers met at a KT R&D center in Seoul to discuss the standardization of next-generation networks and the development of the Internet of Things on Tuesday.

Lee Jae-sub, director of ITU-T, a U.N. agency which is in charge of coordinating standardization works in the global telecom sector; Lee Dong-myeon, CTO and head of the Institute of Convergence Technology at KT; and CTOs from other wireless carriers and networking hardware vendors, including China Mobile, Huawei, NTT Docomo, KDDI, and NEC, attended the meeting.

The meeting’s participants agreed to make concerted efforts to complete standardization works for 5G technology, a next-generation network which is expected to be commercialized in 2020. Around 65 percent of mobile users in Korea currently use the 4G ― Long-Term Evolution ― network, with the remainder using the 3G and 2G networks, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. The ministry expects 4G users to jump to 80 percent in 2016.

“Clear goals and leadership are needed for the development of next-generation telecommunications networks such as 5G to cater to the fast-changing consumer needs,” said Lee Dong-myeon, CTO and head of the Institute of Convergence Technology at KT.

Lee added that KT would try to take the lead in improving network services through technological advancement. The partner companies also pledged to work together to develop IoT technology running on 5G networks.

Mobile carriers around the world are gearing up to launch 5G services as early as 2020. But many critics say standardization work should be completed before next-gen networks are released to reduce unnecessary costs and inconvenience.

The outcomes from the meeting at KT will be used as a reference at other global meetings to deal with relevant issues, a KT official said.

By Kim Young-won  (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)