The South Korean vendor has deployed a private 5G standalone network for Hana's new headquarters in Incheon, it announced this week.
The deployment is noteworthy because, according to Samsung, it is the first of its kind in the South Korean financial sector. And given the stringent requirements of the sector – in terms of security, data handling and so forth – it serves as an endorsement of the use of private 5G technology in a large corporation with specific needs.
Little wonder then that Samsung is desperate to point out that it was the sole vendor for the project.
It's not clear when Samsung and network partner SK Telecom carried out the work. Hana Financial Group has been working on moving its HQ to Incheon from Seoul for a number of years. The full relocation was due to be completed by the end of September – hence the timing of the announcement, presumably – but it could be that the network has been in use for some time.
It's a sizeable deployment. Working with Samsung and SK Telecom, Hana built out what it describes as a large-scale smart office, spanning 16 floors of the new HQ, multiple group affiliates and thousands of employees.
Staff are working from 5G-enabled devices – laptops, tables and mobile phones – and thanks to the private 5G network can access the same work environment any time and anywhere. The fact that the technology is mobile means Hana can make more efficient use of its office space, while reducing the time and resources needed to reconfigure the building. It also boosts employee productivity, Samsung explained.
And, of course, it lays the foundation for an era in which AI will be used across daily operations.
For now though, it's about supporting current processes, which in financial institutions means handling sensitive data under strict rules and regulations. That makes WiFi a non-starter, Samsung said, due to security risks and the threat of cyber attack. The project includes a multi-layered security system, which grants access exclusively to authorised devices and registered users.
"Samsung's private 5G solutions offer both the complete isolation of wired networks and the convenience of wireless connectivity," the vendor said.
It provided radio and baseband solutions, and a cloud-native core that supports the 4.75 GHz frequency band that is used for private 5G in South Korea. The 5G SA core means the customer can have network slices dedicated to specific applications. In the case of Hana Financial Group, its subsidiaries each have access to separate slices, giving them independent operating environments tailored to their specific security policies and business needs.
"For AI and data to be used widely in day-to-day work, employees need a network that gives them secure, reliable access to internal systems and data from anywhere," said Kim Goo-Young, Head of Enterprise Business Office at SK Telecom. "Built on Samsung's core and radio solutions, that secure foundation is now in place — making this smart office a leading example of how we innovate the way the financial sector works."
Meanwhile, Angelo Jeongho Park, EVP and Head of Strategic Sales, Networks Business at Samsung described the deployment as a "meaningful milestone [that] underscores Samsung's leadership in deploying private 5G solutions that deliver even under the most stringent security standards required by regulated industries."
While 'leadership' is always a bold claim, Samsung appears to have good reason to be shouting about this particular private 5G deployment.
Source: https://www.telecoms.com/5g-6g/samsung-and-sk-roll-out-major-private-5g-network-in-financial-sector
