Mobile World Congress 2014: Samsung to unveil Tizen-powered Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch, make major network equipment announcement

Samsung is gearing up to launch a major play for the mobile network equipment market and unveil a smartwatch powered by its Tizen operating system, rather than Google Android.

Currently, the global market for telecoms equipment, including mobile phone network base stations, is dominated by Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, Juniper, NSN, and ZTE.

It’s a lucrative multi-billion dollar market the South Korean electronics conglomerate is keen to gain a slice of.

Earlier this week, The Korea Times reported Samsung is already in talks with a number of major carriers in India in a bid to supply them with 4G network equipment.

New technologies to be demonstrated by the firm include Smart SON (Self Organizing Network), which identifies unexpected mobile cell outages and takes remedial action in close to real time.

Another technology is called Samsung’s Smart CA (Carrier Aggregation), which aggregates the mobile bands with the best conditions to maximise data throughput.

The company will also demonstrate its VoLTE (voice over LTE) system, which allows voice calls to be made over 4G networks.

Other technologies set to be displayed by the company include eMBMS (evolved Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service), which broadcasts content to a large number of mobile users, and InteractiV, which adds interactive data content to phone calls.

In a statement, Samsung Networks head of marketing, Sam Baker, says the new technologies will help carriers maximise revenues from network investments.

“Samsung’s innovative service platforms and solutions fulfill these requirements as well as provide value added services to end-users. Thanks to Korean operators, Samsung is proud of being the only network vendor which has commercialized both VoLTE and eMBMS in the world. We will deliver these early experiences to the global market and will keep developing service platforms that enable new services.”

Meanwhile, there are multiple Korean press reports suggesting Samsung is planning to use its own Tizen operating system, rather than Google Android, to power its Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch.

Both Chosun Ilbo and Electronics Times Newsreport the company is keen to use the operating system on its smartwatch platform ahead of any Tizen-based smartphones.

In a separate report appearing in Chosun Ilbo, Samsung could also be planning to release multiple versions of its Galaxy S5 flagship, which is set to be revealed at the Mobile World Congress.

The report suggests that Samsung will initially launch the Galaxy S5 will a full HD display, before later switching to a higher resolution QHD display.

QHD, a screen resolution of 2560×1440 pixels, has four times the pixel density of a high definition display.