DT and SK Telecom sign strategic cross-investment agreement

10-22-2018 Pia Hettinger

• SK Telecom plans to invest in MobiledgeX, an edge computing company founded by Deutsche Telekom AG. Deutsche Telekom plans to invest the same amount to ID Quantique, SK Telecom’s strategic partner in quantum cryptography technology
• The two companies continue their strategic technology and business partnership to strengthen their competitiveness in 5G

Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges and Park Jung-ho, President and CEO of SK Telecom, announced the cooperation in Seoul, South Korea.

Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom today entered into a cross investment agreement to further strengthen their competitiveness in 5G and deepen their cooperation in the global market. With this agreement, the two market leaders of Korea and Germany continue their strategic partnership announced at Mobile World Congress 2016.

Under the agreement, SK Telecom plans to invest in MobiledgeX, an edge computing company founded by Deutsche Telekom and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, focused on delivering developer-facing edge computing services. Deutsche Telekom plans to invest the same amount to ID Quantique (IDQ), SK Telecom’s strategic partner in quantum cryptography communication technology based in Switzerland.

Going forward, SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom plan to share their technologies and knowhow. The two companies made their cross-investment decision to gain leadership in the upcoming era of 5G by offering specialized 5G services with ultra-low latency in areas like telemedicine as well as AR and VR, while addressing potential security threats.

“SK Telecom is pleased to enter into a cross-investment agreement with Deutsche Telekom as it will serve as a valuable opportunity for us to further solidify our 5G leadership in the global market and drive new growth,” said Park Jung-ho, President and Chief Executive Officer of SK Telecom.

“We look forward to intensifying our successful cooperation with SK Telecom. The partnership will help both companies to strengthen our global technology leadership and bring 5G and other innovative services to our customers,” stated Timotheus Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom.

Unlike the pre-5G era, which was mainly about communication between people, the 5G era will be marked by communication between people and things, as well as communication between things, which will support intelligent services like connected car, smart factory and wearable devices.

Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom are reviewing the idea of utilizing mobile edge computing technologies to reduce data transfer time. With mobile edge computing, companies can conduct on-site monitoring of disaster-affected areas and respond faster to traffic accidents.

Moreover, Deutsche Telekom is reviewing the idea of adopting quantum cryptography communication systems. To this end, SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom are currently in the process of qualifying quantum cryptography technologies on their respective trial networks.