South Korea’s top wireless carrier SK Telecom Co. said Sunday that it has become a member of 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), a global cross-industry association of companies from the telecommunications and automotive industries, a move to speed up development of connected car technology.

Founded on Sept. 27 this year, 5GAA aims to address society’s connected mobility and road safety needs with applications such as connected automated driving, ubiquitous access to services and integration into smart cities and intelligent transportation. Its founding members are AUDI AG, BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Nokia, Qualcomm Incorporated. With next generation 5G mobile networks, data would be transferred at a speed of up to 20 Gigabits per seconds (Gbps), from a 10 to 100 fold increase over current 4G speed. 5G can better support mission-critical communications for safer driving and will further support enhanced vehicle-to-everything communications and connected mobility solutions.

The association will address key technical and regulatory issues, leveraging next generation mobile networks and integrating vehicle platforms with connectivity, networking and computing solutions.

“We are designing 5G to support connected cars and autonomous driving. 5G will enable the automotive industry to create new and innovative values through services including augmented autonomous driving, worry-free car management and rich in-car services,” Alex Jinsung Choi, CTO and Head of Corporate R&D Center of SK Telecom. “I believe that 5GAA will play a pivotal role in realizing 5GAA’s goal of creating new business opportunities for both the mobile telecommunications and automotive industries.”

By Lim Sung-hyun

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