KT, South Korea’s largest telecommunications service provider, said Tuesday that it had successfully demonstrated technology that combined different carriers to offer wider fifth-generation mobile network bandwidths for the first time in the world.

The carrier aggregation connection technology works in the heterogeneous network, which connects a large base station with multiple small base stations.

By utilizing carriers of adjacent or remote bands, mobile network operators can deal with large data volumes and rates and prevent interference and disconnection of data transmission between the large and small base stations.

Mobile subscribers will also be able to use 5G mobile network services with wider network coverage when enabled by the connection technology, which was developed in partnership with Ericsson.

“KT, which has now secured cost-efficient network infrastructure and management technology for the next-generation LTE and 5G, will be able to deliver the best mobile network services down the road,” said Jeon Hong-beom, head of KT’s tech infrastructure R&D lab, in a press release.

With the development of the smart carrier aggregation connection, market watchers said KT had taken a step closer to realizing the next-generation of mobile networks.

It has so far been a major hurdle for mobile network operators to install 5G networks fitted with carrier aggregation technology.

In the trial run of the new technology at KT’s research and development center in Seoul, the average data transfer speed of the firm’s 5G network improved 20 percent compared to those that did not support aggregation.

“The collaboration, which combined KT’s outstanding network management capability with Ericsson’s advanced technology, will create synergy to lead the era of the 5G network,” said Ericsson-LG CEO Martin Wiktorin in the press release.

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