When talking about worldwide benchmarks, people use the term "global standard." A standard means a "norm." Standards are a promise that spans the economy, industry and technology. Sometimes technological advances create the need for "standards," but a single standard can also drive a leap on the level of a revolution. The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards and ChosunBiz selected the "top 10 standards that changed the world" and the "top 10 standards that changed the lives and economy of Koreans" based on a survey of experts from industry, academia, research and the media, and they reexamine the role of standards. [Editor's note]
Kim Seong-do, a professor in the Department of Linguistics at Korea University, defined modern people who use mobile phones in daily life as "Homo Mobilicus" in his 2008 book "Homo Mobilicus." He foresaw an era when people could communicate with anyone, anytime, anywhere through mobile devices. Kim looked beyond the mere direction of technological development and offered insight focused on human life and social structure regarding the changes mobile would bring.
Wireless communications started with first-generation analog voice communications. At the time, only voice calls were possible, and there were limits in terms of security and quality. Later, with the advent of second-generation (2G) digital communications, the era of the "personal telephone" opened. SMS became possible, and call quality and security improved significantly. Third-generation (3G) led to the popularization of smartphones and opened the era of video calls and the mobile internet.
Next, LTE (4G), which emerged in the 2010s, boosted communication speeds by dozens of times and ushered in the full-fledged era of HD video streaming and high-spec mobile games. Now it is the 5G era. As ultra-high-speed wireless internet with speeds up to 20 Gbps has become widespread, it is accelerating the transition to a hyperconnected society that goes beyond smartphones to Autonomous Driving vehicles, smart factories and telemedicine.
An invisible order called "standards" underpins all of these technological innovations. Different countries, carriers and devices can still connect to each other because smartphones and base stations exchange digital signals based on the same communication standards. Standards do not simply mean fast internet. They ensure compatibility between equipment to reduce infrastructure construction expense, enable global roaming and foster the birth of new services.
In fact, without high-speed wireless internet and communication standards, none of the following would have been possible: high-definition video content on YouTube and Netflix, high-spec mobile games from game companies, real-time video calls and cloud-based work collaboration tools. Standards have broken down the boundaries of technology and become the foundation that connects human life more widely and deeply.
In particular, in the 5G era, ultralow latency and hyperconnectivity are key, and an environment is being built in which countless Internet of Things (IoT) devices exchange data in real time. This functions as infrastructure that enables innovation across industries, going beyond simple communication technology.
In the coming 6G era, even more precise connectivity and AI-based network optimization are expected to be realized. In an environment where tens of billions of sensors and devices are connected in real time, communication standards will become a symbol of social consensus and global cooperation beyond mere technical specifications. The role of standards, which will bind these changes into a single frame, is expected to grow even more important.