Pyeongchang 2018, the "5G Olympics"

KT is the official telecommunications service provider for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018 and the company has  dubbed them the "5G Olympics."  It intends to show the world how far it has gone in deployment and testing of 5G technologies. According to a recent post on the Netmanias Tech Blog, "KT is aiming to add 35,000 wired communication lines along the communication duct lines (1,391 km long) being placed across the town of the event. It also plans to install over 5,000 Wi-Fi APs, support 4G/5G/WiFi access, and deploy a mobile communication network capable of supporting up to active 250,000 devices concurrently. The company is also building a cloud-based data center to ensure more efficient and reliable mobile services through more stabilized networks even during traffic spikes with hundreds of thousands of concurrent users. The data center is scheduled to be completed in the first half of the year, and will become fully stabilized after trial operation in the second half of the year."

The timelines for deployment of the Olympics Network and its operation are shown in the accompanying graphic (click for a full-size version).  However, KT's efforts are not taking place in isolation.  There is domestic competition to develop 5G from the likes of SK Telecom, and considerable international interest and competition as well.  This is illustrated in a second interesting graphic published by the Netmanias Tech Blog (click for a full size version).
Beyond consideration of 5G network technologies per se, there is another important contextual factor at work.  As noted in earlier posts, that is Korea's commitment to build a nationwide Public Safety LTE Network by 2017.  So, it is no coincidence that Pyeongchang and the surrounding area are the location for initial testing of both 5G technologies and technologies for the PS-LTE networks.