Samsung and SK Telecom Build Korea's First Private 5G Smart Office in Finance

A wireless office for a wired industry

Financial institutions handle highly sensitive data such as customers' credit and bank information, and they operate under strict network-separation requirements. According to Samsung, this leaves Wi-Fi adoption largely off-limits because of security concerns and cyber risks. Offices in the sector have therefore stayed largely wired.

Hana Financial Group worked with SK Telecom and Samsung to build a large-scale smart office that spans 16 floors of its headquarters, multiple group affiliates and thousands of employees. Using 5G-enabled laptops, tablets and mobile devices, staff can work from anywhere in the building and access a seamless work environment at any time, Samsung said.

The company says the connectivity allows more efficient use of office space, supports productivity and enables a more agile way of working. It also reduces the time and resources needed to reconfigure the building, and it lays the groundwork for adopting AI across daily operations.

Security and network slicing

The project uses a multi-layered security system. According to Samsung, it includes:

• enhanced encryption
• a firewall
• DDoS protection
• USIM-based authentication

Network access is granted only to authorized devices and registered users. Samsung says its private 5G solutions offer both the complete isolation of wired networks and the convenience of wireless connectivity.

For the deployment, Samsung supplied its full stack of network solutions, including radios, baseband and a cloud-native core. The network supports the mid-band (4.7GHz) spectrum dedicated to private 5G networks in Korea.

Samsung's 5G Standalone Core enables network slicing, which divides a single physical network infrastructure into multiple virtual slices, each dedicated to a specific application. Hana Financial Group's subsidiaries will each have access to separate slices. This gives them independent operating environments tailored to individual security policies and business needs.

What the companies say

Kim Goo-Young, Head of Enterprise Business Office at SK Telecom, said: "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." He added that the secure foundation, built on Samsung's core and radio solutions, is now in place.

Angelo Jeongho Park, Executive Vice President and Head of Strategic Sales, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics, described the project as a milestone for Samsung's leadership in private 5G for regulated industries. He pointed to the company's commercial experience across manufacturing, finance, construction, IT and other sectors.

What it means

The deployment shows private 5G being used in a sector where security rules have limited wireless options. Samsung presents it as a template for regulated industries that want mobility without giving up the isolation of a wired network. It also frames the network as a base for enterprise AI transformation (AX), which the companies say depends on secure access to internal systems and data.

Samsung Networks says it delivers 5G end-to-end solutions, including chipsets, radios and cores. Its portfolio ranges from RAN, vRAN, Open RAN and AI RAN to cloud-native AI core, private network solutions and the AI-powered automation tools CognitiV NOS.