Deutsche Telekom and the South Korean company SK Telecom (SKT) have signed an agreement to set up a joint venture for the development of 5G technologies. As the two companies announced on Monday, 5G repeaters are also to be further developed for in-house supply. 5G repeaters are currently still a gap in the market because there are hardly any manufacturers in this area.

According to the agreement concluded, both companies should 50 Hold percent of the company. The new company will then be managed by a representative from Telekom and a representative from SKT, according to a statement from Telekom. The main location should therefore be in Germany.

5G repeater The company’s goal is the development of “innovative 5G solutions” with a focus on 5G in-house supply for the European market. The 5G in-house supply is to be ensured with 5G repeaters. SK Telecom already has a 5G / LTE dual mode repeater on offer, which Telekom is testing together with selected customers in Berlin, Hamburg, Bonn, Cologne, Munich, Darmstadt, Frankfurt and Leipzig from August to October. As it is said, the field test showed that voice communication and the flow of data via 5G and LTE were significantly better. This is where they want to start and promote the development of the repeater and other products. Because companies that manufacture such 5G repeaters are still in short supply. The joint venture wants to use the situation to fill this gap.

“We will start with the repeater, but with this joint venture we want to achieve a lot more. We want to achieve a lot more for both companies in the coming years Years of creating significant innovations, “says Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom. Both companies left open which innovations these are exactly. It is currently being examined to what extent, in the medium to long term, cooperation in the areas of augmented and virtual reality, mobile edge computing (MEC) and apps can be achieved agree to the establishment. Telekom and SKT assume that the establishment of the joint venture will be completed this year.

(olb)