KT said on Sunday it has upgraded its 5G work network into a hub-based service to support flexible work environments for public-sector customers.

The 5G work network is a communications solution for companies and public institutions that replaces existing wired work infrastructure with a security-enhanced 5G wireless network. It can apply a company or institution’s internal network security policies, providing both convenience and security. Another advantage is that it can be used without installing software.

KT’s new hub-based 5G work network improves network infrastructure efficiency. It is designed to move away from the previous approach in which government and local governments requiring network security approval built duplicate systems by institution, and instead build an integrated system at a wide-area hub that affiliated local governments and institutions can jointly use.

The hub-based 5G work network was developed directly by KT Future Network Lab. It is designed to separate and control traffic by section from devices to the central network. Each institution can use the shared infrastructure while operating its network independently at the sub-institution level. Adding a new work network does not require building large-scale equipment.

KT first applied the hub-based 5G work network in the public sector to the Gyeonggi provincial office. KT installed the GMG (Government Mobile Gateway), the core equipment for the 5G work network, at the Gyeonggi provincial office data centre and opened linked work networks for 7 local governments under Gyeonggi Province, including Suwon, Paju and Uijeongbu. KT plans to further develop a back-office function that can separate authority between a supervising institution and affiliated institutions.

Jeon Myeong-jun (전명준), head of KT’s Enterprise Service Division and an executive director, said: "This hub-based 5G work network model is a new business model that can be used not only by metropolitan-level local governments but also by government agencies and public institutions, and all customers that share internal infrastructure." He added: "KT will actively support the digital transformation of public-sector customers by using various platform services."