5G network speeds and coverage in South Korea have improved this year, as the country races to have nationwide coverage of the latest generation network by next year. This was informed by the ICT Ministry on Tuesday.
According to the Yonhap news agency report, the Ministry of Science and ICT said that the average download speed using 5G network from the country’s three major mobile carriers, SK Telecom Co., KT Corp and LG Uplus Corp, reached 690.47 Mbps in the first half of the year. compared to the second half of last year, at 808.45 megabits per second (Mbps).
The government releases 5G service quality reports twice a year as it aims to make 5G available in its 85 cities and rural areas across the country by 2022 after the network is commercialized in 2019. SK Telecom had the fastest average speed of 923.2 Mbps, followed by KT at 782.21 Mbps and LG Uplus Corp with 719.94 Mbps.
The average 5G network coverage of the three carriers reached 6,271.12 sq km compared to last year’s average of 5,409.3 sq km. The ministry said the network was available in seven major cities in the country, including Seoul, while coverage in the other 78 smaller cities was concentrated in heavily populated areas.
The report also found that 5G networks have also improved in stability, with an average rate of 1.22 per cent switching to 4G LTE networks during downloads, compared to 5.49 per cent in 2020.
Mobile carriers mostly offer 5G services on non-standalone mode, which requires support for 4G LTE networks. KT started providing standalone 5G last month, though it’s only available in a small number of devices.
As of June, about 16.5 million South Koreans had subscribed to the 5G network, which is 23 percent of the country’s total 71.6 million mobile network subscriptions.
