SKT Deploys '5G Private Network' at Hana Financial Group, First in Financial Sector

[Financial News] SKT has created a fully wireless work environment at Hana Financial Group's new headquarters in Cheongna, Incheon Metropolitan City, by establishing a 5G, or fifth-generation, mobile communications private network—the first in the financial industry—and meeting financial-sector network separation requirements with dedicated devices.
SKT announced on the 28th that it had begun operating the financial sector's first smart office based on a 5G private network, built in partnership with Hana Financial Group and Samsung Electronics.
The project covers Hana Financial Group's Cheongna headquarters, which its affiliates are scheduled to move into in stages beginning this month. The private network has been applied across 16 floors of office and shared spaces—from the first basement level to the 15th floor above ground—for approximately 3,000 employees of 10 affiliated companies.
A 5G private network is a customized network that a company or institution builds in a specific area using dedicated spectrum. This project uses spectrum allocated by the Ministry of Science and ICT exclusively to Hana Financial Group. Hana TI, the financial group's IT specialist, participated in building the network, while Samsung Electronics supplied the enterprise core and wireless equipment.
Until now, financial institutions have operated work networks centered on wired desktop computers and fixed workstations to meet security and network separation requirements. Going forward, Hana Financial Group employees will be able to use private-network-enabled laptops and tablets to access work systems not only at their desks but also in conference rooms and collaborative spaces. The company expects this to reduce the burden of wiring work required when rearranging desks.
For security, USIM authentication has been implemented so that only registered users and work devices can connect. The system also includes encryption for wireless sections and subscriber information, a firewall, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack protection, and access controls. Each affiliate's work network was configured to operate independently using network slicing and physical network separation technologies.
SKT explained that it designed the system to monitor network usage and outages through a centralized management system, while allowing its applications to be expanded in the future to intelligent access control, AI-powered CCTV, and mobile employee IDs.
Kim Gu-young, head of SKT's Enterprise Business Division, said, "This is an example of supporting changes in how the financial sector works by combining 5G, security, and operational capabilities," adding, "We will expand our enterprise AI transformation business into various industries."

[email protected] Yoon Hong-jip Reporter