Sejong kicks off private 5G business for exclusive use for industrial safety

Sejong Telecom, Inc. a mid-sized facilities-based telecommunications business and ICT platform company in South Korea, will launch a private 5G business in earnest for exclusive use for industrial safety.

At a meeting to share the results of the private 5G (5th Generation Mobile Communication) network convergence service, hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT on Dec. 22 last year, Sejong said its digital safety platform service in the public sector received much attention.

Private 5G refers to a technology enabling companies and backbone facilities-based telecom operators to launch their own 5G convergence services using a dedicated frequency of 4.72 GHz and 28.9 GHz.

Unlike existing commercial networks, private 5G networks can only be used in specific areas such as factories and commercial buildings. Until now, companies had to borrow 5G networks from three mobile telecom operators-- KT Corp., SK Telecom Co., and LG Uplus Corp. -- when they use 5G networks in factories or buildings.

On Oct. 6 last year, Sejong became the seventh Korean company to be assigned the dedicated frequency and was able to start building a private 5G ecosystem for public and industrial safety.

Sejong Telecom is proceeding with a demo project in TLB Co., a domestic printed circuit board maker.

It set up a dedicated 5G network and has provided a total of six industrial disaster safety solutions: worker risk behavior control, mobile equipment accident prevention, electric safety accident prevention, fire and suffocation accident prevention, fire alarm, and smart safety management system construction.

These solutions prevent workers from entering the workplace without protective equipment, leaking harmful gas, overloading or speeding of mobile equipment in the workplace, and sending text messages to managers so that they can quickly identify the situation and take initial action if necessary.

Based on this demo project, Sejong plans to accelerate the spread of its services to other manufacturing companies and industrial clusters in Korea.

"Taking advantage of private 5G technology, we hope to set global standards for industrial safety platform services," said Lee Kwang-mo, director of Sejong Telecom's strategic planning team.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com