SK Telecom develops new Wi-Fi technology delivering 4.8 Gbps speed

SK Telecom to expand LTE speedSK Telecom has developed a new Wi-Fi technology delivering a speed of up to 4.8 Gbps — as fast as 5G technology — in Korea.

The telecom operator demonstrated at a speed of up to 4.8 Gbps at SK Telecom’s Bundang Center in Korea.

SK Telecom has built the Wi-Fi technology on the IEEE 802.11ax standard. Speed of up to 4.8 Gbps  — is nearly four times faster than the existing gigabit Wi-Fi service — 1.3 Gbps, 802.11ac — currently prevailing among smartphones.

SK Telecom said the technology uses four antennas to transmit data and uses 160 MHz bandwidth, twice wider than the gigabit Wi-Fi service, and operates in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz spectrums.

SK Telecom said the new Wi-Fi technology will play a big role in delivering wireless access in any dense traffic scenarios. It features the OFDMA, Multi-user MIMO as well as the Dynamic Sensitivity Control (DSC) technology that are designed to improve the efficiency of the network.

Given the 802.11ax chipsets already released in the market by global makers, the next generation Wi-Fi service is expected to be commercially available for smartphones next year. Smartphones with the chipset deliver a speed of up to 1.2 Gbps in 80 MHz with two antennas.

SK Telecom is planning to deploy access points for the next generation Wi-Fi next year particularly in high traffic density areas. Users with the new chipset-based smartphones will be benefited from the new technology.

“We have laid foundation to offer better mobile services by introducing the technology for the next generation Wi-Fi that can deliver as fast as 5G technology,” said Park Jin-hyo, senior vice president and head of Network Technology R&D Center at SK Telecom.