LG Uplus selects Nokia to boost 5G indoor coverage in South Korea

By Rachael Sharpe
published

Nokia to deploy indoor 5G small cells solutions to enhance LG Uplus’ 5G network.

Markus Winkler / Pixabay
(Image credit: Markus Winkler / Pixabay)

Nokia has announced a new agreement with LG Uplus to expand 5G indoors coverage, by installing new equipment from Nokia’s comprehensive AirScale portfolio across South Korea, enabling seamless 5G indoor and outdoor connectivity. The deal will further deepen the partnership between the two companies, which have already collaborated on LTE, 5G and digital projects.

“Its cost-effective, flexibility and compact design enables us to enhance our 5G offering.”

DaeHee Kim, LG Uplus.

“Nokia’s AirScale system will help provide seamless 5G connectivity in indoor locations and environments. Its cost-effective, flexibility and compact design enables us to enhance our 5G offering,” said DaeHee Kim, Senior Vice President, Head of Network Infra Technology Group, LG Uplus.

Cost-effective 5G

Nokia’s deployment will be the first of its kind in South Korea and see the installation of its cost-effective, next-generation small cell AirScale Indoor (ASiR) systems in a range of indoor locations including shopping centres and office buildings. Composed of Nokia’s Digital Baseband unit and ASiR-pRRH solution, the system features multi-operator and multi-band support and will enable LG Uplus to provide 5G connectivity.

Thanks to the compact and flexible nature of Nokia’s ASiR indoor system, it can be deployed quickly in strategic locations when additional capacity is required, making it suitable for both consumers and enterprise customers. ASiR facilitates a simple service upgrade to 5G New Radio, with minimal on-site working if required, and it features a web-based manager, enabling remote configuration without need for a separate application. This makes the 5G technology an ideal replacement for traditional, complex and expensive distributed antenna system systems, with flexibility further enhanced by cell combination and splitting.

“Infrastructure that will be critical to a seamless 5G experience.”

Tommi Uitto, Nokia.

“We are delighted to have been chosen by LG Uplus to provide infrastructure that will be critical to a seamless 5G experience. Having worked with LG Uplus on a number of other recent projects, we believe the AirScale system is the right choice to complement existing solutions and enable next generation 5G connectivity,” said Tommi Uitto, President, Mobile Networks, Nokia.

LG Uplus is Korea's third largest mobile service provider after SK Telecom and KT. The South Korean carrier, owned by LG Corporation, launched its 5G service in April 2019, with rivals SK Telecom and KT launching their 5G networks at the same time. As well as equipment from Nokia, LG Uplus also uses 5G equipment from Huawei, Samsung and Ericsson.

Rachael Sharpe
Rachael Sharpe

Rachael is a British journalist with 17 years experience in the publishing industry. Since launching www.digitalcameraworld.com, she’s been freelancing, and working for some of the world’s best-loved websites and magazines including T3.com and TechRadar.com and has also had a book, iPad for Photographers, published. A regular contributor at 5Gradar, Rachael is following the 5G market closely. Find out more at www.rachaelsharpe.com