Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

SK Telecom recently announced that it will participate in CES 2022, which will be held in Las Vegas from the 5th to the 8th of January 2022, to showcase green ICT in the era of Net Zero.

SKT will operate a joint exhibition booth with SK Inc., SK Innovation, SK hynix, SK E&S and SK Ecoplant under the theme “SK’s 2030 Net Zero Pledge” and offer a chance for visitors to experience its innovative green technologies.

Environmentally Friendly AI and Telecommunications Network Technologies

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and telecommunications networks stand at the core of ICT innovation. However, they are also pointed out as a cause of environmental pollution due to the large amount of power they consume. Against this backdrop, SKT is accelerating an ICT revolution through the development and application of low-power high-efficiency semiconductors and energy-saving telecommunications network technologies.

At CES 2022, SKT will be showcasing its self-developed AI chip named SAPEON. SAPEON is optimally designed to process AI tasks faster, using less power by efficiently processing large amounts of data in parallel.

With the rapid spread of AI services in people’s daily lives and industries, the amount of data that needs to be processed is growing exponentially. However, the existing AI data centres that use Graphics Processing Units (GPU) for inference are receiving criticism for consuming a great amount of energy. SAPEON is an environmentally friendly solution as it uses 20% less power than GPU, while supporting 1.5 times faster deep learning computation.

SKT will also introduce Single RAN, a technology that reduces the amount of power usage by approximately 53% through integrated operation of 3G and LTE network equipment. The company either replaced the outdated 3G and LTE equipment with new equipment applied with Single RAN or upgraded the software of its existing LTE equipment with Single RAN to operate as both 3G and LTE equipment.

By successfully applying Single RAN to all applicable base stations and repeaters installed in 78 cities in Korea including Seoul in 2020, SKT earned around 10,000 tonnes of carbon credits.

ICT Solutions for Reducing Carbon Generation Daily 

At CES 2022, SKT will invite visitors to experience its metaverse service, multi-use cup project and other ICT services that can help reduce CO2 emissions such as optimal route navigation service.

The company will introduce its metaverse platform Ifland as a new promising path towards a low carbon society. Ifland allows users to take carbon generating activities such as conferences, presentations and business trips to the virtual world.

It provides a wide variety of virtual spaces, including conference halls, outdoor stages and rooftops, and enables users to enjoy rich communication by sharing documents (PDF) and video files (MP4). It can accommodate up to 130 users simultaneously, which makes it an ideal place for large-scale events.

Ifland has been providing users with a new and environmentally friendly experience by migrating diverse offline events to the virtual world ranging from the D-100 event for 2021 Seoul UN Peacekeeping Ministerial and K-pop concerts.

SKT will also present the Habit Cup Project that promotes the use of multi-use cups to reduce plastic waste. Coffee shops participating in the project are serving beverages in multi-use cups named “Habit Cups” that can be later returned via smart kiosks capable of identifying and accepting only Habit Cups through the use of SKT’s vision AI technology. Returned cups are collected every day to be cleaned and sanitised, and then delivered back to cafes.

At present, SKT is carrying out a trial project joined by around 20 cafes located in central areas of Seoul, where there is a large floating population. The company expects to eliminate the use of 1.2 million disposable cups during the three-month project period. It is also implementing a trial project in Jeju Island, and expects to reduce the use of 630,000 disposable cups per year.

Korea’s No.1 navigation service T Map will also be on display. By providing an optimal route, T Map contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and saving fuel. The service also helps save social costs by decreasing the risk of traffic accidents through enhanced safety features like sudden brake alert.

“At CES 2022, we will be showcasing cutting-edge technologies that can drive the green ICT revolution, along with innovative services that hold the power to reduce carbon generation in our daily lives”, said SKT. “Through multifaceted efforts, SKT will become a solid leader in the era of Net Zero”.

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