Seoul, South Korea—As of November 2020, South Korea's 5G network adoption had reached 10.93 million subscribers, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology Information and Communication.
This represents approximately 15% of total cellular service subscribers in the country.
The three major telecom providers reported the following 5G subscriber numbers:
- SK Telecom: 5.05 million
- KT: 3.33 million
- LG Uplus: 2.54 million
The 5G rollout has been slower than the previous LTE deployment, taking 19 months to reach 10 million subscribers compared to 14 months for LTE.
Factors contributing to the slower adoption include limited coverage and higher-priced plans compared to LTE.
Government data shows that 5G coverage reaches 79% of Seoul and 29% of six other major cities.
Download speeds for 5G average 690.51 Mbps, 4.5 times faster than LTE, while upload speeds are 1.7 times faster at 63.32 Mbps.
South Korean telcos have focused on deploying 3.5 GHz frequency networks, and 28 GHz stations have not been implemented yet.
The government had initially required 15,000 28 GHz stations by 2021.
Officials are now considering reallocating the 28 GHz frequency for business applications like smart factories, citing financial constraints on telecom companies for further network expansion.
Since 2013, the average revenue per user for South Korean telcos has remained around KRW 31,500 (US$28.99) due to government policies aimed at reducing telecom bills.
