SK Telecom, Korea’s biggest mobile carrier, has successfully tested a new technology for the development of its Long Term Evolution-Advanced, the next generation of 4G LTE.

The company said Thursday that it has collaboratively demonstrated the enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination, or eICIC, alongside global communication chip maker Qualcomm and telecommunication equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks.

EICIC, which helps to reduce interference between different layers of long-range and short-range signals for efficient and faster data transmission, is considered one of key technologies for the operation of LTE-Advanced.

The Korean mobile carrier said that it will be useful especially in areas overloaded with mobile communication traffic amid the smartphone boom.

With two other LTE-Advanced technologies ― coordinated multipoint and carrier aggregation ― developed, SK Telecom said it will push forward in offering the next line of fast mobile network services.

Last year it field-tested coordinated multipoint, which coordinates the transmission and reception of differing and multiple signals, and in February it tested carrier aggregation, which groups several different frequencies into one channel.

SK Telecom plans to commercialize eICIC and carrier aggregation in the second half of 2013, and has already put coordinated multipoint into practice since January this year.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)