KT, South Korea's largest telecommunications company, has officially launched its 5G network commercial service with an AI-equipped robot named Lota being the first 5G subscriber to the newly launched service.
The new service has begun in the greater Seoul metropolitan area, in the country's most populated, major metropolitan cities outside Seoul and in isolated areas including Jeju, Ulleung and Dok islands. KT plans to expand its nationwide 5G network to 24 major cities, key transport routes such as expressways, subways, high-speed railways, large universities and neighborhood shopping areas.
The next phase of the new network will provide seamless 5G coverage through KT's latest network technology and innovation. Because of KT's Internet backbone with full mesh topology and edge communication centers based on control and user plane separation (CUPS) technology, its 5G service with ultra-low latency is uniquely advantaged over other carriers. Full mesh topology is an up-to-date technology in which every node in the network has a circuit connection to every other node. CUPS is an advanced architecture enhancement technology indispensable for standalone (SA)-based networks of 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards.
The first mobile plan available on KT's 5G network is 10 gigabytes of data for a mobile hotspot terminal at a monthly rate of 49,500 won(~USD43), the same rate applied to Lota. A smartphone with a mobile hotspot function provides an Internet connection for other mobile devices, such as notebook computers.
