Samsung unveils South Korea’s first financial-sector smart office powered by private 5G

The connected office is the first of its kind in South Korea’s financial sector. It is designed to enhance mobility and convenience while providing a foundation for enterprise AI transformation (AX), while meeting the sector’s stringent security requirements.

In collaboration with SK Telecom and Samsung, Hana Financial Group has built a large-scale smart office spanning 16 floors of its headquarters, multiple group affiliates and thousands of employees.

Using 5G-enabled laptops, tablets and mobile devices, employees can access a seamless work environment anytime and from anywhere.

The enhanced connectivity enables more efficient use of office space, supports employee productivity and promotes a more agile way of working, while reducing the time and resources required to reconfigure the building.

It also provides the foundation for integrating AI into daily operations.

Financial institutions handle highly sensitive data, including customers’ credit and banking information, and operate under strict network-separation requirements. As a result, Wi-Fi adoption has traditionally been limited due to security concerns and cyber risks.

The project deploys a multi-layered security system featuring enhanced encryption, firewall protection, DDoS protection and USIM-based authentication. This ensures that network access is restricted to authorised devices and registered users.

Samsung’s private 5G solutions combine the complete isolation of wired networks with the convenience of wireless connectivity.

“For AI and data to be used widely in day-to-day work, employees need a network that gives them secure, reliable access to internal systems and data from anywhere,” said Kim Goo-Young, Head of Enterprise Business Office at SK Telecom.

“Built on Samsung’s core and radio solutions, that secure foundation is now in place — making this smart office a leading example of how we innovate the way the financial sector works,” he added.

For the project, Samsung provided its full stack of network solutions, including radios, baseband and cloud-native core, supporting the 4.7GHz mid-band spectrum dedicated to private 5G networks in South Korea.

Samsung’s 5G Standalone Core enables network slicing, which divides a single physical network infrastructure into multiple virtual networks, with each slice dedicated to a specific application.

Under the deployment, Hana Financial Group’s subsidiaries will have access to separate network slices, providing independent operating environments tailored to their individual security policies and business requirements.

“This meaningful milestone underscores Samsung’s leadership in deploying private 5G solutions that deliver even under the most stringent security standards required by regulated industries,” said Angelo Jeongho Park, Executive Vice President and Head of Strategic Sales, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics.

“By combining cutting-edge technology and our extensive commercial experiences across diverse industries — including manufacturing, finance, construction, IT and more — we are providing secure, tailored networks today while enabling businesses to seamlessly integrate AI-driven innovations,” he added.

Samsung Networks has developed and delivered 5G end-to-end solutions spanning chipsets, radios and core networks.

Through ongoing research and development, Samsung said it is helping advance 5G networks while laying the groundwork for 6G and beyond. Its portfolio includes purpose-built RAN, vRAN, Open RAN, AI RAN, cloud-native AI core, private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools such as CognitiV NOS.

The company currently provides network solutions to mobile operators worldwide, supporting connectivity for hundreds of millions of users.