SK Telecom joins tech giants to develop network tools

SK Telecom, the country’s top carrier, joined an initiative led by global tech giants Google, Microsoft and Facebook to develop programmatic interfaces and tools for networks, the company announced on Thursday. The telecom company is the first Asian company to engage in the informal collaborative effort. The project has also invited telecom operators AT&T, Verizon and British Telecom to come up with more vendor-neutral data models. SK Telecom said it will work together with the participating companies and bring its expertise to the joint project.

A total of five researchers will engage in the project called “OpenConfig” to work with some 60 prominent network specialists from the multinational tech companies.

SK Telecom Chief Technology Officer Choi Jin-sung said that the collaboration can contribute to developing advanced 5G network and futuristic technologies such as virtual reality and hologram-based media.