U.S. Cellular, the fifth largest mobile carrier in the U.S., already delivers 4G LTE services to millions of consumers and businesses. With a focus on providing high levels of customer service, network quality and performance, U.S. Cellular will launch its 5G network to deliver reliable indoor and outdoor service. Samsung will be positioned to help U.S. Cellular continue to build its 5G network using equipment that is compliant with 3GPP 5G NR standards.

“We are excited at the prospect of working with Samsung to extend groundbreaking 4G LTE and 5G technology to our customers, expanding what is possible in consumer experiences and business applications,” said Mike Irizarry, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, U.S. Cellular.

“We look forward to this new collaboration with U.S. Cellular, a key provider of mobile services to millions of customers across the U.S.,” said Mark Louison, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Networks Division, Samsung Electronics America. “As our latest network solutions become a larger part of the U.S. market, we are excited to advance Samsung’s 5G innovation and leadership, and continue our journey in delivering new communications technologies, including 4G LTE and 5G.”

Added Louison: “We are focused on enhancing mobile networks around the world by providing global operators with best-in-class solutions, and applying experience gained from regional deployments in India, Japan, Korea, the U.S., and other markets.”

About U.S. Cellular
U.S. Cellular is the fifth-largest full-service wireless carrier in the United States, providing national network coverage and industry-leading innovations designed to elevate the customer experience. The Chicago-based carrier is building a stronger network with the latest 5G technology and offers a wide range of communication services that enhance consumers’ lives, increase the competitiveness of local businesses and improve the efficiency of government operations. To learn more about U.S. Cellular, visit one of its retail stores or uscellular.com. To get the latest news, promos and videos, connect with U.S. Cellular on Facebook.com/uscellular, Twitter.com/uscellular and YouTube.com/uscellularcorp.

TWS, a privately owned company, will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics America, Inc. The service offerings and customers of TWS complement Samsung’s growth among networks infrastructure clients. With competencies in radio frequency (RF) and network design service–as well as installation, testing, optimization services–TWS will continue to serve its existing customers and clients they currently support with Samsung. The TWS leadership team will continue to manage the business and, together with Samsung, will address the network upgrade cycle occurring in the U.S.

“The acquisition of TWS will enable us to meet mobile carriers’ growing needs for improving their 4G and 5G networks, and eventually create new opportunities to enhance our service capabilities to our customers,” said Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will continue to drive innovation in communications technology while providing optimization services for network deployments that accelerate U.S. 5G network expansion.”

“Everyone at TeleWorld Solutions is excited to be part of the Samsung family,” said Shervin Gerami, CEO of TeleWorld Solutions. “The advent of 5G and the amount of new spectrum coming into the U.S.  market requires scale and innovation for the next generation of wireless technologies. Joining forces with Samsung will accelerate innovation to help our customers fulfill their needs for network strategy, deployment, and automation.”

Continued growth in mobile usage is driving the need for new spectrum and network densification. Additionally, demand is increasing for network infrastructure, design, deployment and optimization services. This is driven by 5G network builds, network virtualization initiatives, testing and optimization associated with new open RAN architectures–and demand for new enterprise cellular networks.

With a growing position in the U.S. networks industry, along with its 5G technology leadership, Samsung has collaborated with major U.S. network operators to fulfill 5G’s network expansion. As its growth continues through network operator agreements and enterprises seeking their own cellular networks, the combination of Samsung and TWS will help customers address a range of next-generation demands.

For over 40 years, Samsung has had a strong presence in the U.S., investing more than $30 billion and currently employing over 20,000 workers across the country. Samsung has demonstrated the power of 5G with end-to-end solution from semiconductor, mobile phone to network infrastructure through U.S. initiatives such as the 5G Innovation Zone at its Samsung Austin Semiconductor facility in Texas and a collaboration to create the nation’s first 5G-enabled stadium experience. Samsung remains committed to investing in 5G advancement and network development across the U.S.

About TeleWorld Solutions, Inc.

TeleWorld Solutions, Inc. is a network services provider that delivers consulting, design, deployment, testing, optimization, automation, and software development services to mobile service and cable operators, equipment OEMs and other companies across the U.S. TeleWorld Solutions fulfills the full lifecycle of network services across DAS, Macro, Small Cells, 5G, V2X, Satellite, Technology development, IoT, and Enterprise. TeleWorld Solutions has been recognized by Deloitte as a Fast 500 company due to its innovation to our services and continued customer satisfaction. For latest news, please visit TeleWorld Solutions at http://www.teleworldsolutions.com.

KT has used its 5G commercial network using 3.5GHz frequency deployed in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, which comprised of Samsung’s 5G NR end-to-end network solutions including 5G radio and virtual core (vCore) supporting both 4G LTE and 5G simultaneously, and 5G smartphone (Galaxy S10 5G). The two companies have focused on providing end users with real-world outdoor mobile experiences, achieving overall 1Gbps speed on 5G smartphone connected to 5G commercial network.

This has been one of the key accomplishments for the two companies – proving that 5G commercial network is ready to deliver stable gigabit speed for end-users since last December – signifying the impact of 5G commercialization and promising enhanced user experiences in a real outdoor environment.

After KT selected Samsung as the key 5G network solution provider in November 2018, the companies have jointly built the 5G commercial network, on-air already from last December. Since then, the two companies have been focusing on optimizing the 5G network for both wider coverage and exponential data traffic derived by 5G’s higher speed.

As 5G commercial service for end-users is set to arrive this spring, KT announced today that 5G network will be ready for end-user mobility service in 85 cities nationwide including the Seoul metropolitan area by end of March 2019. This includes 5G service coverage expansion throughout a number of major national highway and high-speed railways (KTX and SRT) connecting cities. In addition, it will gradually cover 464 colleges and universities, subways, landmark buildings and parts of mountainous areas.

“KT has shown unparalleled leadership in technology through its 5G trial services in PyeongChang, which led to early 5G commercialization,” said Chang-Seok Seo, Executive Vice President of Network Strategy Unit and Network Group at KT. “Based on our technical expertise and years of experience working on 5G, KT will continue to establish its 5G network across the nation to provide differentiated services to our valued customers in collaboration with Samsung.”

“Samsung and KT will continue to work closely in collaboration to push beyond the limits of today’s technology and offer a glimpse of the revolutionary world led by 5G,” said Jaeho Jeon, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Harnessing our assets and cutting-edge 5G end-to-end solutions, Samsung aims to be at the forefront to push the limits of 5G even further.”

This achievement is a part of an ongoing collaboration between KT and Samsung of many years toward 5G commercialization. The two companies successfully delivered the 5G pilot services during the winter sports games in February 2018, being the first to bring 5G network and device that utilize 28GHz frequency. Leveraging this experience, they succeeded in live video call conducted with Samsung’s 5G network built in USA and Korea (Link), respectively. Further, the companies achieved 5G NR based interoperability test using both 3.5GHz and 28GHz in February 2018 (Link).

These joint efforts have led Samsung to become a major 5G partner of KT in November 2018 and launch 5G mobility commercial service in South Korea on December 1, 2018.

Samsung Electronics America today announced that their 5G-ready massive MIMO solutions on Sprint’s 2.5 GHz TDD-LTE network are now in commercial service. As part of Sprint’s network, Samsung’s massive MIMO solutions deliver improved 4G LTE throughput and capacity to Sprint’s subscribers. Additionally, this helps provide Sprint with a seamless upgrade path to 5G New Radio (NR), utilizing the carrier’s deep 2.5 GHz spectrum.

In February 2018, Sprint announced its selection of Samsung as a massive MIMO provider for their future 5G mobile network launch in the U.S., an important milestone for the carrier. Samsung’s massive MIMO can provide a way for operators to inject new capacity into their network without having to purchase more spectrum or add new base stations. It is being used by Sprint to significantly boost LTE network speeds and capacity for millions of U.S. customers, while improving network efficiencies through advanced beam-forming. 

“We are excited to see Samsung MIMO solutions in use on Sprint’s current LTE commercial network, which will help their customers experience the full benefits of network innovation,” said Lyle Nyffeler, Vice President, Networks Division, Samsung Electronics America. “Our MIMO solutions are engineered to maximize 4G networks today, while offering a graceful, seamless path to a 5G future.”

In addition to delivering substantial capacity gains using the same amount of spectrum, Samsung’s MIMO solution offers a seamless path through split mode, enabling deployment of 4G and 5G NR on the same radio, without any hardware changes. The massive MIMO implementation also includes the Samsung CDU 30, a higher capacity digital unit and software that enables gigabit level speeds while supporting eMTC and NB-IoT.

“Massive MIMO is a powerful technology that enables us to dramatically increase our LTE capacity and data speeds, giving customers in dense urban locations an even better mobile experience,” said Jay Bluhm, Vice President of Network Development and Engineering, Sprint. “We’re also excited to collaborate with Samsung on 5G and enable a whole new level of immersive mobile services.”

For further information on Samsung and Sprint’s massive MIMO trial, please visit here.

Based on the 2018 Busan meeting, the 3GPP will make the final announcement of 5G phase-1 standards at the general meeting that is going to be held in the U.S. next month. The 5G standardization process that started in April 2016 will end next month after a 27-month journey. In particular, the work carried out on the frontlines by Samsung engineers has helped to bring about the commercialization of 5G 21 months faster than the time taken for the 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) transition, which was 39 months. Some of the global consumers will be able to enjoy, as early as this year, the next generation services such as ultra-high definition content, artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous driving, and the Internet of Things (IoT) on 5G that is more than 20 times faster than the previous network.

“Samsung Electronics has been working on ultra-high frequency three years faster than other companies,” said Younsun Kim, Principal Engineer of Standards Research Team at Samsung Research and Vice Chairman of RAN1 working group in 3GPP. “When the world started to discuss the setting of standards, Samsung had already developed the related technologies. We had strong aspirations to bring the standardization for 5G commercialization faster than any other company in the world.”

Comparison between 4G LTE and 5G standardization schedules

“2017 vs 2020,” A Debate Over Setting the Standardization Period

Many in the industry turned their heads as the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) identified ultra-high frequency above 6GHz as the optimal candidate band for 5G (refer to ‘Pioneer in 5G Standards, Part 1’), and a debate ensued between those who advocated for faster 5G standardization and others who were more reluctant to do so.

Samsung set 2017 as the completion period for the first 5G standardization as it developed the cutting-edge beamforming technology, Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) and other technologies to use ultra-high frequencies. However, other companies that were focusing on the 4G commercialization and had a late start on 5G R&D, countered with 2020 as the completion period for the first 5G standardization. This would have pushed the 5G commercialization period to 2021.

Samsung propelled to establish a workshop at the 3GPP, and 150 companies and more than 550 attendees came to Phoenix, the U.S. in September 2015. Here, the company proposed core technologies for 5G and provided a conciliatory gesture to delay the first standardization period, including the ultra-high frequency band, to 2018. As the participants from U.S., Japanese and Korean companies who wanted to commercialize 5G early showed great interests in the plan, the argument for ‘standardization in 2020’ was revoked. At the April 2016 5G standardization meeting, which was the first one organized by Samsung, companies reached an agreement of setting 2018 as the year to complete standardization.

The 3GPP 5G Workshop held on September 2015 in Phoenix, U.S.

Doubt Turns to Trust for Ultra-High Frequency through Vigorous Contacts to FCC and Others

From the early stage, Samsung has been eager to introduce the 5G ultra-high frequency technology to regulatory government agencies and international organizations. The company has been in constant contact with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) since 2012 because they always open their communication channels to explore new technologies. The FCC had a great interest in using ultra-high frequency due to saturation of using low frequencies below 6GHz. They positively replied to Samsung on the issue of using a 28GHz ultra-high frequency for the first time.

The FCC allocated ultra-high frequencies including 28GHz for 5G in July 2016, just three months after the first 3GPP standardization meeting. The U.S. is now looking forward to commercializing 5G communication in the second half of this year as the U.S. telecommunication companies are competing fiercely to lead on 5G services with their allocated frequencies. Such movements have acted as catalysts to move toward the standardization of 5G.

“When Samsung first introduced 5G standardization to the world in 2013, most doubted or ignored the idea,” said Hyukchoon Kwon, Principal Engineer of Standards Research team at Samsung Research. “Trust in Samsung and its 5G technology, as well as the rapid advancement towards standardization, were all possible not only because of technological developments but also due to constant contact with international organizations and various governments.”

Since 2015, Samsung has been actively suggesting 5G technology to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), one of the three biggest international standards (ITU, IEC, ISO) and conformity assessment bodies for all fields of electrotechnology. The IEC published the white paper on the evaluation of 5G ultra-high frequency product electromagnetic waves in November 2017. The international standard on 5G device electromagnetic waves affecting the human body is expected to be completed as early as next year.

Samsung showcased its latest 5G innovations at MWC 2018 in Barcelona.

Five 3GPP Chair and Vice Chairs, and the Largest Number of 5G Patents Validate the Standards Leadership of Samsung

The international organization 3GPP that leads 5G standardization has 16 working groups under three Technical Support Groups (TSGs). Samsung has been in charge of four positions including the Chair of Service & System TSG and Chair of RAN4 working group, which oversees the frequency and performance that is key to 5G, and in 2018, one more Chair position – SA6 working group for mission-critical applications – was given to Samsung, as an evidence of how its leadership in 5G technology and standardization is recognized throughout the world.

Samsung also kept its eyes on registering patents to protect the innovative technologies. According to the Taiwan Patent Office in 2016, Samsung led 66 companies by owning 12.7 percent in more than 7,500 of the essential standard patents for 4G LTE and LTE-Advanced. The company continues its leadership on developing 5G-related technologies and securing essential standard patents. As the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) allows companies related to the 5G standards to register their essential patents, Samsung registered the largest number of 1,254 patents as of May.

“The study on 5G ultra-high frequency started in 2009 and it is now heading to its goal of producing international standards after ten years of work, thanks to our engineers’ dedication, said Juho Lee, Master of Standards Research Team, Samsung Research. Samsung’s efforts to make people’s lives more abundant through advanced technologies will continue even after the commercialization of 5G.”

Starting May 21, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), an initiative uniting the world’s leading telecommunications standard development organizations, will convene in Busan, Korea to complete communication standards, vital for the commercialization of 5G wireless communications. Samsung Electronics’ research into ultra-high frequency (mmWave) for 5G extends back to 2009 when the Dallas, Texas branch of Samsung Research, formerly known as the Digital Media & Communications (DMC) R&D center, fixed its sights on the ultra-high frequency above 6GHz.

Samsung Research’s Dallas, Texas branch, pictured in 2009

“We had a strong belief in the potential of ultra-high frequency, then considered uncharted space for the industry, and pushed forward in R&D, one step ahead of other companies,” said Sungho Choi, Vice President of the Standard Research Team at Samsung Research. “This was during a time when basically everyone in the telecommunications industry was busy preparing for the transition to 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE), and there was great uncertainty as to what would come after.”

Early Efforts by Samsung Electronics

In 2009, the Dallas office initiated an in-depth study into next generation telecommunications technology and delivered a proposal on ultra-high frequency to Samsung Research. In the extensive 300-page report, ultra-high frequency, with the application of cutting-edge beamforming technology, was seen as the method to solve the challenge of ultra-high-speed, large-volume transmission.

This was at a time, however, when the dominant opinion of papers and books on telecommunications had doubt about the application of ultra-high frequency due to its drawbacks. However, believing in the potential of its discovery, in 2011, Samsung Electronics initiated an in-house project to expand upon research, and in the following year, Samsung Research established a “Next Generation Communications Lab,” accelerating the development of ultra-high frequency and 5G technologies.

As the culmination of its early efforts, Samsung Electronics’ successful demonstration of the world’s first 5G communications, with speed of 1Gpbs, made headlines in 2013, thanks to the close to four years of advanced research at a time when 4G LTE was enjoying its rise to the height of popularity.

In 2013, Samsung Electronics successfully demonstrated the world’s first 5G communications, at a speed of 1Gbps.

Finding the Optimal Band for 5G, 28GHz

The research into ultra-high frequency posed a critical question for the international community related to the ideal frequency band for 5G. At the time, nationally regulated frequencies, in the range between 0 and 300GHz, were already allocated for communications, broadcasting, science and military purposes. The challenge was encouraging as many countries as possible to use the same bands for 5G to accelerate standardization and commercialization.

“When beginning our research, we studied almost every ‘frequency map’ in the world,” said Juyeon Song, Principal Engineer of the Standard Research Lab at Samsung Research. “We arrived at the conclusion that the most applicable ultra-high frequency band is 28GHz.”

Propelling Standard Development After Approval of Ultra-High Frequency as the 5G Candidate Band

Samsung strived to continue technology development after identifying the optimal candidate band for 5G, 28GHz. However, researchers soon reached an impasse: persuading those countries, who had already allocated the band for core industries other than communications, as well as certain business segments, who were reluctant to rush the commercialization of 5G during the dominance of 4G.

“Witnessing the saturation point of using traditional frequencies below 6GHz, more countries began to pay attention to ultra-high frequency,” said Hyoungjin Choi, Principal Engineer of the Standard Research Lab at Samsung Research. “Targeting these countries and companies with a great interest in the utilization of the frequency band and commercialization of 5G laid the foundation for standardization.”

During the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialized agency of the United Nations, the Korean government submitted a proposal on by Samsung. However, the issue was alignment with countries that wanted to use the ultra-high frequency band for services other than telecommunications services. During the ensuing four-weeks of marathon meetings, several ultra-high frequency bands were finally approved as candidate bands for 5G, propelling standardization.

Since WRC in 2015, with debate ongoing, Samsung has continued its efforts to advocate and serve as the leading proponent of 5G standardization, towards the aim of the development of technologies related to ultra-high frequencies. Read the second part of this special series for more on Samsung’s journey after 2016 to develop 5G standards, including 28GHz^* ultra-high frequency.

During the 2015 WRC, the Korean government submitted a proposal to utilize ultra-high frequency technology for 5G.

^*The 3GPP is standardizing more than 30 candidate bands from a low frequency of 600MHz to ultra-high frequency of 40GHz. 28GHz is the representative ultra-high frequency band which leading 5G countries are seeking to prioritize to realize 5G commercialization.

About 1,500 standards experts from chipset, handset and equipment vendors including Samsung, Qualcomm, as well as major mobile operators such as Verizon, AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, KT and SK Telecom will attend to complete the 5G phase-1 standard.

“The first 5G standard, which includes innovative technologies developed by Samsung Electronics, will be completed at this 3GPP conference,” said Seunghwan Cho, Executive Vice President of Samsung Research. “This will lead the market to commercialize 5G communication to serve as the core infrastructure for the coming fourth industrial revolution.”

At this conference, all working groups (RAN working groups 1 to 5) that develop 5G wireless technology assemble to confirm the final technologies for 5G commercialization. These include 5G wireless access technology providing ultra-high speed data and ultra-low latency and the conformance testing method for 5G terminals.

In particular, the RAN4 working group, chaired by Samsung, will decide the radio performance requirements for 5G terminals and base stations including the 3.5GHz and 28GHz bands. This requirement will inform the radio regulations, which will be key in the deployment of a 5G spectrum when 5G commercialization starts in earnest in Korea, in the U.S. and Japan.

In December of last year, 3GPP first approved the 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) standard that uses the existing 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) as the anchor for connecting to 5G. And as the 5G Standalone (SA) standard will be completed in this Busan meeting, the 5G phase-1 standard will be officially approved at the 3GPP plenary next month in the U.S.

Samsung is leading 5G as a pioneer in the areas of new technology development, standard activities and patents. With 1,254 patents as of this month, Samsung Electronics ranked first on the list of 3GPP member companies with essential 5G standard patents declared to the European Telecommunications Standardization Organization (ETSI).

The company was successful in the world’s first 5G mobility demonstration between base stations over an ultra-high frequency (mmWave) band in 2015, having started its 5G research in 2012. In 2017, the company succeeded in 5G communication on a high-speed vehicle traveling at 200km/h and demonstrated the world’s first 8K video download and 4K video upload on the bullet train.

Samsung signed a 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) commercial agreement with Verizon in January of this year based on its industry leading 5G technologies, standards leadership and numerous field demonstrations. This February, Samsung became the first in the world to get approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the U.S. government agency regulating interstate communications, for 5G Radio access unit and outdoor Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), and also obtained approval for its 5G Home router (Indoor CPE) this month.

Younsun Kim (center), Principal Engineer of Standards Research Team at Samsung Research, is welcoming attendees at the 3GPP 5G Conference Working Group (RAN1) meeting, held in Busan on May 21, 2018.

※ Background Information

3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP):

An organization that currently develops 5G communication standard technology. More than 550 companies are participating as member companies. It consists of 16 working groups that develop standard specifications of an E2E technology of terminal, base station and system.

LTE and 5G Comparison (ITU-R, 2017.02)

3GPP Structures

Three TSG (Technology Steering Group)s and 16 working groups.

Status of Samsung’s Leadership in 3GPP

It has not been long since Jio brought a radical digital revolution to India. Now, the company is ready to pave the way for a fully digital India, in which IoT will reach every corner of the country’s society and economy. The IoT network, the first of its kind in the country, will support a variety of consumer and enterprise use cases such as vehicle tracking, smart appliances, smart metering, security, surveillance and more.

“Making sure that everyone benefits from mobile broadband that is both available and affordable to all is our top priority. We will once again partner with Samsung to offer a suite of innovative services for all users,” said Jyotindra Thacker, President of Reliance Jio Infocomm.

“We are delighted to contribute to Jio’s success story and rapid growth. We have been striving to offer the best experience possible to all users at Jio. Jio’s LTE network will unlock the potential of IoT and promise a much more convenient and safe environment for users,” said Youngky Kim, President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics.

The NB-IoT service not only utilizes the existing spectrum held by Jio, but is also enabled by a simple software upgrade of the already installed base stations. Further deployed is the new and dedicated Cellular IoT virtualized core. The commercial NB-IoT network successfully established by Jio and Samsung in Mumbai in February 2018 will soon impact other parts of the country with new and compelling use cases.

The agreement represents another phase of collaboration between the two companies, in which the targeted outcomes are faster internet access for users across India, as well as the generation of unexplored services and business models for enterprises.

About Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited:

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (“Jio”), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (“RIL”), has built a world-class all-IP data strong future proof network with latest 4G LTE technology. It is the only network conceived and born as a Mobile Video Network from the ground up and supporting Voice over LTE technology. It is future ready and can be easily upgraded to support even more data, as technologies advance on to 5G, 6G and beyond.

Jio will bring transformational changes in the Indian digital services space to enable the vision of Digital India for 1.2 billion Indians and propel India into global leadership in digital economy. It has created an eco-system comprising network, devices, applications and content, service experience and affordable tariffs for everyone to live the Jio Digital Life. As part of its customer offers, Jio has revolutionized the Indian telecom landscape by making voice calls for Jio customers absolutely free, across India, to any network, and always. Jio makes India the highest quality, most affordable data market in the world so that every Indian can do Datagiri.

Jio and Samsung’s ongoing effort in transforming India into a digitally empowered society by overcoming the country’s digital divide has been recognized on the global stage with this prestigious award. The two organizations have focused on reaching the power of communication and information with free voice and world’s lowest data rates across towns and rural areas through the deployment of the world’s largest greenfield LTE network in India.

In addition, Jio has focused on enabling an easy access to digital life with customer-oriented applications and tariffs. Through its invitational offers, millions of Indians were able to embrace a digital lifestyle and helped Jio to rapidly expand its subscriber base to a record 100 million within 170 days of launch.

As the sole vendor for Jio’s LTE radio access network, Samsung worked with Jio at each step of the process from network planning, network expansion, interference analytics to optimization. The LTE solutions provided by Samsung were fully compliant with the 3GPP LTE standards, with their performances already verified and proven in other global markets.

“We are pleased to have won this prestigious award in joint effort with Samsung Electronics, who have been a reliable partner in our pursuit to creating a truly Digital India,” said Jyotindra Thacker, President of Jio. “By continuing to introduce consumer-centric options in our services and much easier access, we hope to bring down India’s digital divide and enable every Indian to benefit from digital life,” he added.

“Today’s achievement signified more than just an award, it is an indicator of the transformation we have brought to India and its people,” said Youngky Kim, President and Head of Network Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung, as Jio’s strategic partner for the realization of Digital India, is pleased to be able to support the process of India taking steps towards becoming a pioneer in the global telecommunications industry.”

To fulfill the key intention of the project, of bringing India together and improving elements that impact the quality of human lives, the project plans to launch many more applications around the fields of education, health, rural, livelihood and agriculture and reach digital empowerment to the remotest corners of India.

About Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (“Jio”), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (“RIL”), has built a world-class all-IP data strong future proof network with latest 4G LTE technology. It is the only network conceived and born as a Mobile Video Network from the ground up and supporting Voice over LTE technology. It is future ready and can be easily upgraded to support even more data, as technologies advance on to 5G, 6G and beyond.

Jio will bring transformational changes in the Indian digital services space to enable the vision of Digital India for 1.2 billion Indians and propel India into global leadership in digital economy. It has created an eco-system comprising network, devices, applications and content, service experience and affordable tariffs for everyone to live the Jio Digital Life. As part of its customer offers, Jio has revolutionized the Indian telecom landscape by making voice calls for Jio customers absolutely free, across India, to any network, and always. Jio makes India the highest quality, most affordable data market in the world so that every Indian can do Datagiri.

Right now, the entire telecommunications industry is preparing to usher in the era of 5G, which will surpass the current mainstream technology, 4G. Samsung Electronics has led in developing these innovative 4G technologies in the markets with the highest LTE penetration rates, such as the U.S., Korea, Japan and the UK. Now, the company is making preparations to lead the 5G era based on its innovative technology and previous success in implementing 4G.

In this interview, two of Samsung Network Business unit’s executives—Dr. Dongsoo Park, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Sales & Marketing Team, and Dr. Woojune Kim, Vice President, Next Generation Business Team—share how Samsung is working to do so.

Dr. Dongsoo Park (left) and Daryl Schoolar (right)

Q. Please tell us a bit about Samsung Networks’ current business status and achievements in 4G LTE?

Dr. Park: Our success with 4G LTE has helped us to build a strong global networks business. We have led in the development of OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access) technologies and this experience has proved helpful in rolling out LTE solutions.

We have successfully deployed LTE technology in advanced markets including the U.S., Japan, the UK and Korea. To continue innovating and providing cutting-edge technologies, we have focused on mature markets with the highest mobile broadband adoption rates. We do, however, see additional opportunities in emerging markets that could also prove to be valuable.

Q. What is your strategy for entering new markets such as South Asia?

Dr. Park: We’re pursuing markets with high potential for large-scale LTE deployments. In these markets, we’re looking to target operators with similar needs to our existing customer base, like those that are seeking advanced, cutting-edge LTE solutions.

We would like to work in emerging markets to contribute to their digitalization through LTE, all the while cultivating long-term relationship with our customer-operators. Our partnership with Jio in India is a great example of this. We don’t want to put ourselves in a position where we are competing only on price. We’re trying to enter markets where we can lead in technological development with innovative solutions.

In cases where it is part of the operators’ strategy, 5G is a definite asset for creating our opportunities. The introduction of 5G, with its use of small cells mixed with macro cells and reliance on network virtualization, will lead to more open interfaces and make it easier to integrate multiple vendors.

Q. What business strategies will you use to stand out in a crowded field?

Dr. Park: When it comes to vendor differentiation, our strategy is to be “first to market” with leading edge technologies. Our collaboration with Korean operators has allowed us to lead the deployment of some of the most technologically advanced LTE networks in the world.

For instance, we set a number of precedents in our efforts to commercialize various LTE technologies. This includes developing VoLTE, multicarrier and LTE Smallcell in 2012, carrier aggregation in 2013, LTE Broadcast (eMBMS) in 2014,  and tri-band carrier aggregation and virtualized core (NFV, vIMS/vEPC) in 2015. Furthermore, we expect to unveil  LTE-Advanced Pro features early next year. These will enable users to reach 1-gigabit throughput using tri-band carrier aggregation, 256QAM and 4X4 MIMO.

Dr. Woojune Kim (left) and Daryl Schoolar (right)

Q. What is the background of Samsung’s Next Generation Business team?

Dr. Kim: Samsung has been working on 5G in different areas of the company (IC, devices, networks) for the last five years. But earlier this year, we found that 5G was accelerating faster than anticipated, so we had to increase our efforts accordingly. To do this, we had to consolidate all of our 5G projects into a single business unit. The result is the Next Generation Business team, which incorporates Samsung’s 5G development teams, along with the 5G strategy team.

Q. What are some of R&D-related preparations Samsung is making regarding 5G?

Dr. Kim: Samsung believes 5G is different than previous mobile standards. It is much more than just an interface for mobile devices. It is a completely new network architecture and it will be found in a much more diverse set of devices including consumer electronics and industrial devices.

Samsung has been developing 5G-related technologies since 2011. We have invested significant resources in 5G technologies like millimeter wave channel models and RF ICs. This includes RF key technologies for smaller chipsets, multi-cell handover with millimeter wave frequency and network virtualization technologies.

Q. What is your strategy for collaborating with the 5G industry?

Dr. Kim: The key starting point for our strategy to commercialize 5G is partnering with operators. Right now, we are developing Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) solutions and we expect to move on to mobile solutions. We are also collaborating with other ecosystem vendors, such as component vendors, to find ways to reduce the costs of 5G equipment and solutions.

We are even working with our competitors to create mutual standards on which we can build a set of 5G parameters. These parameters will help operators understand what to expect from 5G. In addition, we have started to work with third-parties to ensure that video, IoT and other applications run properly across 5G networks.

Q. How is Samsung planning to differentiate itself when it comes to 5G?

Dr. Kim: Internally, we are proactively bringing together as many business units as possible to usher in this new era of telecommunications. For example, to introduce millimeter wave the network will require a new type of base station that is small, visually attractive, cost-effective and has the ability to run on low power. This requires Samsung not only to leverage engineering expertise in the network business to build the radio, but also to bring in resources from our consumer electronics business to create something that will be aesthetically pleasing.

Q. When will the 5G commercialization take place?

Dr. Kim: We think we will see some initial commercial networks based on 5G by the end of 2017 or early in 2018. We are expecting targeted use case-driven deployments initially, as opposed to all-encompassing nationwide rollouts.

We’ll also see that 5G won’t be as mobile-centric as we might have considered it to be previously. Fixed wireless, IoT and mission critical communications don’t always have the same broad coverage requirements as found in our traditional mobile communications networks.

5G, therefore, will serve much more than mobile devices and networks, as it won’t be required to have the same universal coverage. Instead, 5G will be deployed in more select areas for specific 5G aspects, such as high bandwidth or low latency, with LTE filling in coverage gaps.

Q. After launching 5G FWA commercially, what steps will Samsung take to initiate full 5G mobility?

Dr. Kim: Once the operators implement Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), they can then add mobility. Put simply, 5G FWA might be described as a “wireless fiber to the home” which is considered one of initial 5G use cases. 5G mobility is expected to be available around 2020. Until then, we will satisfy the current market needs of 5G FWA starting in 2017.

Q. What is the biggest misunderstanding that mobile operators have about Samsung Networks?

Dr. Park: Some mobile operators attribute the success of our networks business solely to our customer-operators in Korea. However, Samsung has been committed to mobile network development for more than 35 years, and actively contributed to advancing connectivity capabilities in a number of markets.

Having Korea as our home base affords us an incredible opportunity to commercialize the latest technology, which are reinforced by our current presence in the U.S., Japan, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Russia. Our recent collaboration with Jio India further promotes Samsung’s firm commitment to the infrastructure business.

Verizon’s 4G LTE Network Extender for Enterprise uses Samsung’s innovative small cell technology to deliver a 4G LTE solution for organizations that transforms weak coverage areas within a business into productive work zones, enabling workers’ smartphones and tablets to stay connected where and when they are needed.

The solution is ideal for mid-sized locations (10,000 to 100,000 square feet) and is cost-effective and easy to deploy. A single unit supports approximately 42 concurrent users and about 31,500 square feet.

“The introduction of this solution with Verizon represents our continued focus on delivering innovative LTE solutions for our customers,” said Mark Louison, Networks Division Senior Vice President and U.S. General Manager for Samsung Electronics America. “The 4G LTE Network Extender for Enterprise expands the small cell portfolio for Verizon to deliver the best service for their location-diverse subscriber base.”

This combination of better technology and affordability is driving significant growth for this type of solution across multiple industries, including hotels, hospitals, public safety offices, government agencies, and remote and expansive operations facilities.

“The Samsung solution provides us with an offering for our enterprise customers that have significant volumes of devices, employees or guests that require a fast connection for 4G LTE,” said T.J. Fox, senior vice president of Wireless Enterprise for Verizon. “The introduction of the 4G LTE Network Extender for Enterprise provides our business and government clients with a 4G voice and data solution that seamlessly extends the corporate network to deliver mission- critical apps and corporate emails in a high performance environment.”

With more than 35 years of experience in developing and commercializing telecom network technologies, Samsung’s Networks Division has worked closely with mobile service providers around the world, helping them successfully implement advanced LTE solutions. Samsung’s network solutions are globally recognized and successfully deployed in the U.S., Korea and Japan, allowing carriers to seamlessly integrate multiple communications protocols to create a unified customer experience.

Verizon Enterprise Solutions helps clients improve customer experience, drive growth and business performance and manage risk. With industry-specific solutions provided over the company’s secure mobility, cloud, strategic networking, Internet of Things and advanced communications platforms, Verizon Enterprise Solutions helps open new opportunities around the world for innovation, investment and business transformation. Visit www.verizonenterprise.com to learn more.

About Verizon

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, employs a diverse workforce of 178,500 and generated more than $127 billion in 2014 revenues. Verizon Wireless operates America’s most reliable wireless network, with 109.5 million retail connections nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America’s most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers worldwide. For more information, visit www.verizon.com/news/.

The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) recently ranked Samsung Electronics No. 1 among industry peers for possessing the largest number of 4G LTE/LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) standard-essential patents (SEP). The ranking is based on a two-year- study by the TIPO, which culminated in a report titled, ‘2014 Results of Research on Telecom Technology Patent Trends and Patent Litigation Analysis.’

TIPO analyzed approximately 6,200 4G LTE/LTE-A related patents filed before the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), focusing on SEPs that were essential to the 4G LTE/LTE-A standards. Samsung SEPs accounted for 17% of the 3,600 4G LTE/LTE-A SEPs owned by the 35 companies that were assessed.

“Through our relentless R&D efforts, our standard-essential patents have contributed to shaping the standards that have guided the evolution of the mobile telecommunications industry.” said Heungmo Lee, Senior Vice President and the Head of IP Prosecution Team, Digital Media & Communications R&D Center, Samsung Electronics.

Samsung has a long history of advancing mobile telecommunications technology. In 1998, Samsung first joined standardization organizations for mobile telecommunications technology, such as 3GPP. In 2001, the company won an important seat in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project.

With regards to 4G LTE mobile telecommunications technology, Samsung pursued the ambitious goal of establishing a leadership position in this area. To this end, Samsung developed telecommunications solutions and mobile devices while simultaneously conducting extensive R&D to strengthen the competitiveness of the company’s standardization efforts. As a result, Samsung was able to release the industry’s first commercial products and services embedded with LTE/LTE-A technology, as evidenced by the LTE dongle in 2009, Voice over LTE (VoLTE) service in 2012 and Carrier Aggregation technology in 2013.