In December, Hyukchoon Kwon, a researcher at Samsung Research’s Advanced Communication Research Center, was awarded by the Minister of Science and ICT (MSIT) to recognize his contributions to the development of national spectrum policy.

Since 2020, Kwon has discovered several new spectrum standardization topics for the new technologies using unlicensed spectrum, such as WiFi 6E/7 and broadband UWB technologies which can be applied in various ways in our smartphone devices. He also promoted the crucial improvement of national spectrum policy, based on widely used wireless connectivity standards such as IEEE 802.11 / WiFi Alliance for WiFi 6E/7 and IEEE 802.15 / FiRa Consortium for UWB. This was recognized as an excellent contribution to the global harmonization and to the completion of the spectrum policy to enable the industry to spread the new unlicensed spectrum applications such as WiFi 6E/7 and UWB technologies.

Among these achievements, the MSIT announced in December the revised radio regulation notice that enables to apply UWB technology in the smartphone devices. This set the foundation for the industries to expand the service ecosystem using UWB technology in smartphones by increasing the number of available UWB channels and expanding the allowable frequency bandwidth. Through this, we can expect the spread of various key services such as the UWB digital keys and the application of UWB indoor navigation for smart homes, cities, and mobile environments.

Kwon said emphatically: “This prompt development of government’s spectrum policy and regulations which responds to the industry’s demand for the introduction of new standards based technologies, is expected to become the future model case for the national spectrum policy development.”