SKT-ADT Caps-Innodep, '5GX Industrial Drone' Business Agreement

At the agreement ceremony held via video call on the 18th, Park Jin-hyo, Head of Security Business at SK Telecom (also CEO of ADT Caps, second from the left), Kim Yoon, CTO (second from the right), and Lee Sung-jin, CEO of Innodep (center front row in the video), along with other officials, pledged cooperation to lead the drone market based on communication networks.

[Asia Economy Reporter Joeslgina] SK Telecom announced on the 19th that it has signed a tripartite agreement with ADT Caps, a leading domestic security company, and Innodep, a leading intelligent video analysis platform company, for the "development and commercialization of 5GX drone solutions."

This is aimed at creating innovative drone services that have never existed before by connecting 5G networks to drones, a promising future business, based on the capabilities of the three companies. 5G-based industrial drone services can operate multiple drones simultaneously and quickly transmit large-capacity data such as ultra-high-definition video (4K) in areas connected to communication networks.

At the signing ceremony held via real-time video call the day before, SK Telecom’s Jin-Hyo Park, Head of Security Business Division (also CEO of ADT Caps), CTO Yoon Kim (also Head of AIX Center), and Seong-Jin Lee, CEO of Innodep, agreed to lead the 5G drone market and foster the related ecosystem through active cooperation.

Based on this agreement, it is expected that various fields such as ▲emergency dispatch in disaster situations like fires ▲monitoring, inspection, and security of public infrastructure and industrial complexes ▲air quality measurement ▲3D surveying can be applied, significantly reducing time and costs compared to existing services while greatly improving accuracy and quality.

Going forward, the three companies plan to jointly plan industrial drone service businesses and collaborate to target public and private markets across various fields including public safety and disaster response, industrial facility security, and real-time surveying.

They also plan to jointly develop converged solutions combining 5G-based communication, drones, and AI-based video data analysis platform technologies to actively enter overseas markets. The global industrial drone market is a rapidly growing promising industry, expected to grow nearly 12 times from $500 million in 2017 to $5.9 billion by 2025.

The three companies plan to combine their advanced technologies to create innovative communication network-based drone services.

First, SK Telecom will enhance the existing 5GX drone control system and provide 'SRT (Secure Reliable Transport),' a low-latency video transmission technology based on communication networks such as 5G for stable and secure video transmission and reception of drones, as well as the intelligent video analysis engine ‘VA (Video Analytics)’ technology.

Innodep will systematize the 'SRT' and ‘VA’ technologies developed by SK Telecom, build a platform that analyzes video data and sensor data generated by the movement of 5GX drones, and will be responsible for service maintenance and business cooperation upon commercialization.

ADT Caps will utilize the integrated control platform and dispatch infrastructure of 5GX drones and ADT Caps to handle joint planning, consulting, construction, maintenance, and repair of security and partnership business services.

These companies plan to first launch drone solutions using existing networks such as LTE within the year, then expand services in line with the release of 5G modems for drones and the expansion of 5G networks.

Jin-Hyo Park, CEO of ADT Caps and Head of SK Telecom’s Security Business Division, said, "Collaboration among specialized companies with excellent technology is essential for the success of the drone business," adding, "We will combine the capabilities of the three companies to revitalize the domestic drone industry and lead the market."

Yoon Kim, CTO of SK Telecom, said, "Drones are a field with great growth potential through ICT synergies such as 5G and AI," and added, "We will present a converged standard of 5G, drones, and AI-based intelligent video analysis to activate the drone service market."

Seong-Jin Lee, CEO of Innodep, said, "With the rapid formation of new security markets based on drones domestically and internationally, this cooperation is expected to be an opportunity to revitalize the domestic and overseas industrial drone markets."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.