Trimble TRMB 0.00%↑ and KT Corporation announced Tuesday they will jointly offer bundled telecom and high-precision positioning services in South Korea, integrating Trimble’s RTX Fast correction network with KT’s communications infrastructure. The packaged solution is aimed at the automotive, IoT, smart-city, and robotics markets by delivering real-time centimeter-level GNSS accuracy over KT’s wired and wireless platforms, the companies say.
Trimble’s RTX Fast, which covers more than seven million square miles in North America and Europe, will now be available across urban centers, rural regions, and remote islands in South Korea. “With an existing footprint in North America and Europe, we are building on our strategy to extend RTX Fast to other regions around the world,” said Olivier Casabianca, Trimble’s vice president, advanced positioning, in a statement.
Wontae Kim, head of KT’s strategic customer business, said the collaboration will allow companies to “easily use, test and validate their automotive and IoT systems” under local conditions.
South Korea already has a precision positioning service in Swift Navigation’s Skylark via SK Telecom, which launched last year. Swift’s Skylark, which also delivers centimeter-grade corrections nationwide, touts the service as one that delivers lane-level accuracy for autonomous vehicles.
The service, which will be marketed to OEMs and IoT companies in the country, will allow entities to offer positioning and correction services for vehicles equipped with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) capabilities, the companies say. Trimble and KT expect early deployments to be with not only automotive OEMs and utilities, but drone operators later this year.
