iWorld
Mobile Congress: SK Telecom to discuss 5G commercialisation with Nokia & Ericsson
MUMBAI: SK Telecom has announced that it will participate in the 2017 GSMA Mobile World Congress to be held from 27 February to 2 March, at Fira Gran Via, Barcelona, Spain. The company has set this year’s theme as “Connect Everything” and will be showcasing a wide variety of innovative technologies and services that will transform people’s lives in the future.
At its booth 3H10, SK Telecom will display ‘5G Connected Car,’ a vehicle with 5G connectivity and services; artificial intelligence (AI) platform NUGU and NUGU-powered devices; technologies and services for IoT-dedicated networks; and immersive media based on virtual reality technologies
SK Telecom will display ‘T5,’ which is the world’s first 5G connected car the company has successfully demonstrated in Korea in November 2016. Connected car, realized through a combined set of key 5G technologies, dramatically enhances driving safety and provides immersive in-vehicle entertainment services via the 5G network that supports ultra-high speed and ultra-low latency transmission of massive data. In November 2016, SK Telecom has built the world’s largest 5G testbed at BMW driving center located in Yeongjong Island and demonstrated interworking between the end-to-end 5G system and the 5G Connected Car.
Moreover, on 6 February, 2017, SK Telecom achieved 3.6Gbps transmission speed at 28GHz band for a connected vehicle moving at 170 kilometers per hour. The 3.6Gbps of data rate enhances the stability of connected car services by improving image recognition and V2X (Vehicle to Everything Communication) technologies. That is, a vehicle can communicate, in real time, with other vehicles, traffic lights and surveillance cameras to understand and respond to unexpected situations and obstacles in a much shorter time.
Besides the 5G Connected Car, SK Telecom will also showcase federated network slicing, a technology the company has successfully demonstrated jointly with Deutsche Telekom and Ericsson, for the first time in the world, on February 14, 2017. In 5G, network slicing will allow the operator to configure an end-to-end network that provides the desired overall functionality and service parameters. Federated network slicing extends this concept to a visited network, meaning that customers will be able to enjoy the same quality service while travelling to a different country. At SK Telecom’s booth, visitors will be able to witness how federated network slices can be created, managed, and terminated in the form of NS-as-a-Service (Network Slice as a Service). The created slices can be used in various applications, including V2X and connected cars.
Meanwhile, SK Telecom will also participate in the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) forum – to be held in Barcelona from February 21 to 23 – to engage in discussions on 5G-based autonomous driving services and platform.
Furthermore, SK Telecom senior vice president and head of network technology R&D Center Park Jin-hyo will take part in the MWC Conference titled “5G Beyond the Hype: Value and Building Blocks.” Park will share SK Telecom’s vision and roadmap for 5G commercialization and talk about differentiated values 5G is expected to bring to customers. He will also discuss 5G cooperation with CTOs of global ICT companies including Nokia and Ericsson.
At MWC 2017, SK Telecom will showcase NUGU, a voice-activated AI platform that understands and processes the Korean language, as well as intelligent devices powered by NUGU. The company will also demonstrate interworking between NUGU speaker and Aibril, a Watson-based AI service.
In September 2016, SK Telecom has launched an intelligent personal assistant speaker based on NUGU. Since then, the company has been constantly upgrading the platform, while carrying out studies on the generation AI devices powered by NUGU.
Visitors will be able to gain a first-hand experience of the NUGU speaker, including its ‘smart IoT hub’ feature that enables voice control of diverse smart home* devices such as IPTV, air purifier and gas valve.
The company will showcase a desktop type AI device by adding image recognition and hand posture recognition technologies to voice recognition engine/technology. Unlike other AI devices, it has a head embedded with a camera and a screen, and can be easily controlled via hand/finger postures. Going forward, the device will be able to generate rich information and emotional expressions by utilizing head movements and screen graphics.
Through the application of its own intelligent image recognition solution, SK Telecom plans to build a personalization system based on facial recognition. Once built, the system will offer a tailored service for each and every member of a family.
SK Telecom will also display Toy Bot, a robot for kids. Applied with the Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) solution, Toy Bot offers a calling feature.
Moreover, under cooperation with SK C&C, the information technology arm of the SK Group, SK Telecom will also demonstrate interworking between NUGU speaker and SK C&C’s Aibril, a Watson-based AI service, to enable the speaker to recognise English as well. Building on this, SK Telecom will continue to cooperate with SK C&C in the area of artificial intelligence to further strengthen its competitiveness.
Going forward, SK Telecom will not only expand its NUGU-compatible smart home product line-up, but will also develop and offer an intelligent smart home service that automatically suggests/implements personalized service for each individual. This will be made possible through the application of machine learning technology, which conducts comprehensive analysis of a wide range of information including device use history, lifestyle pattern and indoor/outdoor environment.
“While making aggressive efforts to develop innovative AI technologies, SK Telecom will continue to make efforts to expand the AI ecosystem by joining hands with diverse companies across the world,” said Park Myung-soon, Senior Vice President and Head of Future Technology R&D Center of SK Telecom.
Meanwhile, on 27 February, 2017, SK Telecom’s CTO Alex Jinsung Choi will participate in the MWC’s AI-related conference titled “Artificial Intelligence – Chatbots and Virtual Assistants” to discuss the future of the AI industry with CTOs of global AI firms including Google and IBM. Choi will give a presentation on SK Telecom’s AI platform ‘NUGU’.
At MWC 2017, SK Telecom will showcase LoRa gateway and module, and demonstrate various adaptable IoT services centered on metering, tracking and monitoring.
proposing standards for LoRa roaming interworking
SK Telecom is also playing an active role in the establishment of international standards for LoRa roaming. At MWC 2017, the company will demonstrate a location-tracking service enabled via LoRa roaming between Korea and Spain using candidate technologies for standardization currently being discussed within the LoRa Alliance.
In addition, ThingPlug, an integrated IoT platform based on OneM2M standard will also be on the show. ThingPlug allows people to easily develop IoT services and apply them to their real lives. The strength of ThingPlug lies in its ability to establish connections with any device and application based on global IoT standards.
SK Telecom will unveil its 360-degree live broadcast platform named ‘360 Adaptive VR Live Streaming Platform (or 360 VR Live)’ at the MWC.
360 VR Live is an innovative end-to-end broadcast system that enables users to produce and livestream ultra-high-definition (UHD) 360-degree virtual reality (VR) video with low latency using a 360-degree camera. The platform produces UHD VR content through its differentiated stitching technology. When it comes to creating 360-degree visuals, it is important to seamlessly stitch multiple videos or images taken by the 360 camera. Based on multi-band blending algorithm, the platform stitches images in multi layers to produce a seamless 360 VR content without any distortion. In terms of frame rate, it supports 60 frames per second (FPS), which is translated into two times higher image quality than that of its competitors.
Moreover, 360 Live VR has significantly reduced the bandwidth required for transmitting 360 video data. Generally, live streaming of 360 VR video requires up to six times greater bandwidth than traditional broadcasting. However with the platform, the size of the 360 VR video file is reduced by 35 percent, while not compromising the image quality thanks to dynamic tiling.
In addition, applied with ‘T Live Streaming,’ an innovative real-time streaming technology developed by SK Telecom, 360 VR Live creates a better environment for live broadcasting of 360-degree VR video by dramatically reducing latency from over 20 seconds to less than five seconds.
SK Telecom brings T.um Mobile, a travelling ICT museum, to Barcelona to provide Spanish children with the chance to experience cutting-edge technologies.
T.um Mobile will be opened as part of the Youth Mobile Festival (YoMo) Barcelona at Fira Montjuic, from February 27 to March 2, 2017. The GSMA and Mobile World Capital Barcelona launched YoMo as part of Mobile World Congress to inspire young people to pursue education and careers in science, technology, engineering, art/design, and math (STEAM) disciplines.
T.um Mobile will offer smart robot-based coding classes at different levels of difficulty. Moreover, it will feature three different ICT experience zones designed to enable children to easily understand technologies that will become mainstream in the upcoming era of 5G such as virtual reality, augmented reality and holograms.
Gaming
India’s new online gaming rules take effect today, banning money games and creating a regulator
The rules, in force from today, separate e-sports from gambling and impose jail terms and stiff fines on violators
NEW DELHI: India’s online gaming sector woke up this morning to a new reality. The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026, came into force today, May 1st, turning a year of legislative intent into enforceable law. The message from New Delhi is blunt: e-sports and social games are welcome; online money games are not.
The rules operationalise the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming (PROG) Act, passed by Parliament in August 2025. Together, they represent the most sweeping regulatory intervention India has made in its booming digital gaming market, one that generated Rs 23,200 crore in 2024 and is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 11 per cent to reach Rs 31,600 crore by 2027. The stakes, in every sense, could not be higher.
A sector out of control
The urgency behind the legislation is not hard to find. An estimated 45 crore Indians have been affected by online money gaming platforms, with losses exceeding Rs 20,000 crore. Addiction, financial ruin, money laundering, and suicides have all been linked to the sector. Seventy-seven per cent of the market’s revenues came from transaction-based games, a figure that made regulators deeply uneasy.
The government’s response, effective as of today, is categorical. Online money games, whether based on chance, skill, or any mix of the two, are banned outright. So is their advertising, promotion, and facilitation. Banks and payment processors are barred from handling related transactions. Unlawful platforms can be blocked under the Information
Technology Act, 2000.
The penalties are designed to sting. Offering or facilitating online money games can attract up to three years in jail and a fine of up to Rs 1 crore, or both. Repeat offenders face a minimum of three years, extendable to five, with fines between Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore. Advertising such games carries up to two years in prison and fines of up to Rs 50 lakh, with repeat violations attracting higher penalties still. Cyber cell officers at state and union territory levels, including at police station, district, and commissionerate levels, are empowered to investigate offences.
The new sheriff in town
At the centre of the new framework sits the Online Gaming Authority of India, a digital-first regulator constituted as an attached office of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, headquartered in Delhi. It is chaired by the additional secretary of MeitY and includes joint secretary-level representation from home affairs, finance, information and broadcasting, youth affairs and sports, and law and justice, a deliberately multi-sectoral design built for a complex sector.
The authority’s powers are broad. It will maintain and publish lists of online money games, investigate complaints, issue directions, orders, and codes of practice, hear appeals on user grievances, and coordinate with financial institutions and law enforcement to ensure effective and timely action.
Its decisions on game classification are to be completed within 90 days, a time-bound commitment that industry players have welcomed after years of regulatory ambiguity. Classification can be triggered by the authority acting on its own initiative, by an application from a service provider, or by a notification from the central government. Games will be assessed on objective factors: whether stakes are involved, whether players expect monetary winnings, the revenue model, and whether in-game assets can be monetised outside the game. The outcome is recorded in a determination order specific to the game and provider.
E-sports gets its moment
While the crackdown on money gaming dominates today’s headlines, the rules also carve out a structured path for e-sports and online social games. Registration, required when notified by the central government, applies to all games offered as e-sports and is based on factors including risk to users, scale, financial transactions, and country of origin. A successful application yields a digital certificate of registration with a unique number, valid for up to ten years. Service providers must display registration details, designate a point of contact, comply with data retention requirements, and follow directions on facilitating payments.
Online money games are explicitly ineligible for recognition or registration as e-sports under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025. The separation is deliberate, and the industry has noticed.
Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of NODWIN Gaming, called today’s operationalisation “encouraging,” pointing to publisher-led registration of esports titles and a time-bound determination process as creating “much-needed certainty for all stakeholders.” He added that the “continued emphasis on clearly separating esports from online money gaming is critical in preserving the integrity of competitive gaming as a skill-driven discipline.” He described it as “a proud moment to see official acknowledgement of the broader benefits of responsible esports and gaming, from building confidence, discipline, and teamwork to creating new career pathways for young talent,” and said the framework sets “a strong foundation for the ecosystem to scale in a more structured and globally competitive manner.”
Animesh Agarwal, co-founder and chief executive of S8UL, was equally bullish. “This clarity is critical in unlocking investor confidence and attracting multi-genre brands, while also enabling organisations to take a more long-term view, whether in investing in talent, scaling teams, or building globally competitive formats,” he said, adding that it “strengthens trust among audiences and mainstream stakeholders, positioning esports not just as a sport, but as a fast-growing youth entertainment category in India.”
But Agarwal urged caution on several fronts. There remains limited clarity around financial frameworks, particularly in how esports earnings are treated by banks and financial institutions. A well-defined pathway for the formal recognition or registration of esports teams is still evolving, as are structured player protections. He also called for smoother visa processes for esports athletes competing in international tournaments and for government support in developing infrastructure, including bootcamps, training facilities, and access to high-performance equipment across titles.
Vishal Parekh, chief operating officer of CyberPowerPC India, pointed to downstream effects on education and careers. “With formal recognition and policy backing, colleges and institutions are more likely to take the sector seriously, whether through dedicated esports infrastructure, training programmes, or curriculum integration,” he said, adding that this helps students view gaming as a viable career spanning roles across competitive play, content, game development, and allied industries. He noted that as esports gains prominence in global multi-sport events, the framework strengthens India’s position in international competitive gaming, and called on the ecosystem to provide the right infrastructure and access to high-performance hardware to unlock opportunities in talent development and job creation.
Protecting users, one safeguard at a time
The rules introduce a layered system of user protections calibrated to the risk profile of each game. These include age verification, age gating, time restrictions, parental controls, user reporting tools, counselling support, and fair-play and integrity monitoring. Service providers must disclose their safety features and internal grievance mechanisms when applying for determination or registration.
A two-tier grievance redressal system sits atop these safeguards. Users who are dissatisfied with a platform’s resolution can escalate to the authority within 30 days. The authority aims to dispose of such appeals within a further 30 days. A second appeal lies before the secretary of MeitY, who must also endeavour to resolve matters within 30 days. Enforcement proceedings will be conducted in digital mode wherever possible, with cases targeted for resolution within 90 days from receipt of a complaint.
Penalties under the framework are proportionate, taking into account gain from non-compliance, loss to users, the gravity of the offence, and whether violations are recurring. Mitigation efforts by service providers will also be considered when determining penalties. All penalties imposed under the Act will be credited to the Consolidated Fund of India.
The money follows the rules
For investors and founders, the implications are immediate and significant. Sagar Nair, head of incubation at LVL Zero Incubator, a 100-day sprint designed to accelerate early-stage gaming startups across India, argues that with real-money gaming now prohibited, capital will shift “away from transaction-driven models toward content-led, IP-driven, and global-first gaming businesses.” He acknowledged trade-offs: for operators with exposure to real-money formats, the market becomes more restrictive in the near term. But he argued that by clearly separating esports and non-money gaming from online money gaming, “India is positioning itself as a hub for responsible, creative, and scalable game development.” The opportunity, he said, is “to view India not just as a monetisation-first market, but as a talent, IP, and scale market,” adding that “for founders and investors willing to adapt, this shift could ultimately strengthen India’s position in the global gaming landscape.”
The government frames the wider impact in equally ambitious terms: a boost to India’s creative economy and digital exports, new career pathways for young people, protection for families from predatory platforms, and a stronger voice in global digital governance. India, it argues, offers a model for other countries grappling with the same tensions between gaming’s economic promise and its social risks, one that shows innovation and strong safeguards need not be mutually exclusive.
Whether the framework delivers on those promises will depend on enforcement, always the hardest part. But from today, the architecture is firmly in place: a regulator with teeth, a classification system with deadlines, penalties designed to deter, and a clear dividing line between games that build careers and games that destroy finances. For a sector that has grown fast and governed itself loosely, May 1st, 2026 is the day the free ride ends.
