South Korea’s leading wireless carrier SK Telecom Co. will start commercial 4.5G network service that enables nearly 1 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) download speeds through its five-band carrier aggregation technology on Monday, the company announced on Sunday.

The five-band carrier aggregation, which bundles up five wireless frequency bands into one to enhance data transmission speed and performance, is considered as the core technology in the 4.5G network called LTE-A Pro technology, the last stage of LTE evolution.

The service supports speeds of up to 700 megabits per second (Mbps), enabling users to download a high-definition 2-gigabyte movie in just 23 seconds.

“SK Telecom will continue to offer differentiated mobile communications quality through LTE-A Pro service, while utilizing the network to gain a valuable edge in the 5G era,” said Choi Seung-won, senior vice president of the company.

By Cho Hee-young

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