Summary
Samsung says Hana Financial Group’s 16-floor Incheon headquarters is using a private 5G network for thousands of employees and multiple affiliates. The network uses separate virtual slices for subsidiaries and layered access controls.
Samsung Electronics says it has supplied the private 5G network for a smart office at Hana Financial Group’s new headquarters in Incheon, South Korea. The office spans 16 floors and serves multiple group affiliates and thousands of employees using 5G-enabled laptops, tablets and mobile devices. Samsung describes it as the first smart office of its kind in South Korea’s financial sector.
SK Telecom, Samsung and Hana Financial Group developed the project together. Samsung says it was the sole vendor for the private 5G network solutions, supplying radios, baseband equipment and a cloud-native core. The deployment uses mid-band spectrum at 4.7GHz, which is dedicated to private 5G networks in South Korea.
Wireless access with layered controls
Financial institutions handle sensitive information, including customer credit and bank data, and operate under strict network-separation requirements. Samsung says those concerns have limited Wi-Fi adoption in the sector. The new office is intended to give staff wireless access to internal systems while preserving network separation.
The network combines enhanced encryption, a firewall, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection and USIM-based authentication. The USIM approach restricts access to authorised devices and registered users. Samsung describes its private 5G solution as combining the isolation of a wired network with the convenience of wireless connectivity.
For employees, the intended change is that 5G-enabled devices can connect across the office without relying on fixed network points. Samsung says this can make office space easier to use and reduce the time and resources required to reconfigure the building. The announcement presents these as expected workplace benefits, rather than reporting measured productivity results.
Separate network slices for affiliates
The system uses Samsung’s 5G Standalone Core, which supports network slicing. Slicing divides shared physical network infrastructure into virtual networks, or slices, that can be assigned to different applications or operating requirements. Under this deployment, Hana Financial Group subsidiaries will each have a separate slice, with operating environments tailored to their security policies and business needs.
That separation is significant for a group whose affiliates may have different network requirements: they can use the same underlying 5G infrastructure while having distinct virtual environments. The company also frames the network as groundwork for applying AI in everyday operations, since staff need secure access to internal data and systems. The announcement describes that foundation, rather than a specific AI application going live.