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SK Telecom
Already spoiled by ridiculous wireless network speeds, South Korean customers will now be able to enjoy speeds up to 225 Mbps starting this week when SK Telecom, Korea’s biggest mobile operator, rolls out a new broadband LTE-Advanced service.
While current mobile connections max out at 75 Mbps, this new technology will be three times faster, allowing users to download 800MB movies in less than 29 seconds. The LTE-A broadband service utilizes carrier aggregation (CA) technology, which combines 10 MHz and 20 MHz bands to achieve significantly higher transfer speeds.
The same technology was demoed at last week’s Mobile Asia Expo in Shanghai when a research team led by SK Telecom and Nokia showcased record speeds of 3.8Gbps. The previous record was achieved by SK Telecom at the Mobile World Congress in February at a much “slower” 450 Mbps.
The first device set to launch supporting LTE-A speeds will be a new iteration of the Samsung Galaxy S5. LG and Pantech are also planning on unveiling new devices by early July.
Industry experts have pointed out that the new speeds will be surpassed within six months through the introduction of tri-band and quad-band CA technology. Korean mobile operators have already vowed to provide customers speeds that exceed 300 Mbps before the end of this year.
