A survey has found that Korean mobile operators’ 5G service coverage and speeds improved overall compared to last year. In both regional coverage and speeds, SK Telecom took first place again following 2021.
KT and LG Uplus took first place in the 5G coverage of public places. They have both finished 5G network installation in all public places in Korea, including department stores, large hospitals, and movie theaters.
The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Information Society Agency (NIA) announced on Dec. 29 the results of their 2022 Communication Service Coverage and Quality Survey, which was conducted nationwide, including the nation’s all 85 cities and major counties.
As of October 2022, the three major Korean mobile carriers’ coverage averaged 33,212.50 square kilometers, an increase of 74.4 percent from 19,044.04 square kilometers in the same month of 2021. By mobile carrier, SK Telecom covered 34,241.58 square kilometers, KT 33,185.10 square kilometers and LG U+ 32,210.82 square kilometers.
The average 5G access rate within common public places stood at 96.54 percent, an increase of 1.18 percentage points compared to the previous year. In particular, in transportation infrastructure, 1,041 (98 percent) of 1,063 subway stations have 5G equipment and the 5G connection rate of 34 subway lines across the country reached 93.74 percent, up 4.35 percentage points from the previous year. However, 5G networks were not yet completed on the Shinbundang Metro Line (58.82 percent) and the Seohae Line (6.63 percent).
In addition, this year, 5G service access inside small and medium-sized facilities was newly checked in addition to public places. The rate was 78.22 percent, which is 18.32 percent lower than one in public places. This suggests that people may have trouble in using 5G services in small and medium-sized buildings.
This year’s 5G download transmission speed averaged 896.10Mbps among the three mobile carriers. This represented an increase of 11.9 percent compared to 801.48Mbps in the previous year. The 5G upload speed also climbed by 12 percent to an average of 93.16Mbps from 83.01Mbps in the previous year.
By carrier, SK Telecom was the fastest with 1002.27Mbps (an increase of 72.35Mbps from 2021), followed by KT with 921.49Mbps (an increase of 158.99Mbps) and LG Uplus with 764.55Mbps (an increase of 52.54Mbps).
LG Uplus is still showing a slightly slower speed than the other two mobile carriers. But analysts believe that the effect of the 20 MHz frequency in the 3.4 to 3.42 GHz band allocated by the Ministry of Science and ICT in July has not yet been fulled reflected in LG Uplus’ 5G service speed. They have said that LG Uplus has been in a somewhat unfavorable position as it has used 5G frequencies with a width of 80 MHz which is less than 100 MHz of its competitors.