SK Telecom is one of the MNOs which is best equipped to adapt to the new realities of the mobile internet game, and even to continue to drive change. One of its advantages over less experienced operators and vendors is that all its ideas have to pass the test of working in probably the toughest mobile and broadband user base in the world. Another is that it has a highly established ecosystem of vendors and partners, and a significant ability to direct their developments. The operator, together with NTT Docomo, KT and China Mobile, has been experimenting with different approaches to Cloud-RAN as well as broader software-defined networking (SDN) activities. Now it is claiming a world first demonstration of ‘software-defined…