SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom will set up a 50-50 joint venture in Germany to focus on 5G technology business.

The joint venture will develop advanced 5G in-building solutions and develop market opportunities starting with Europe. It will also evaluate opportunities to cooperate in the areas of augmented reality and virtual reality services, mobile edge computing (MEC) and the app market, said Park Jung-ho, CEO of SK Telecom.

The market for in-building Distributed Antenna System (DAS) is expected to be worth USD 10.33 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 10.1 percent between 2018 and 2023, according to Markets and Markets. There are no strong players in the market for 5G repeaters and the joint venture will use strengths of SK Telecom and DT to tap the market.

SK Telecom has already provided 5G / LTE dual-mode repeaters to support DT’s customer trial for in-building coverage carried out in eight different cities in Germany – i.e. Berlin, Hamburg, Bonn, Cologne, Munich, Darmstadt, Frankfurt and Leipzig – from August to October 2020.

Customer trial results have shown that users experienced significant improvement in 5G and LTE for both voice and data experience with this test device. The joint venture is scheduled to complete the development of an advanced 5G/LTE dual-mode repeater.

“The first feedback from repeater customer trial has shown the value of our partnership – for us, but more importantly, for our customers. We will start with the repeater, but this joint venture is aiming at a much higher goal. That goal is to create major innovations for both companies in the years to come,” says Tim Hottges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom.

The creation of the joint venture is still subject to mandatory regulatory approval but expected to close before the end of the year.