President Moon Jae-in announced bold government-level support on May 8 for the fast growth of the 5G market.
President Moon attended an event called "The first commercialization of 5G in the world is initiated by South Korea" at Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul.
"The world has already begun a fierce competition for early commercialization of 5G," Moon said in his speech. "Now is the time to start a challenge to be the best in the world."
"Our government seeks to create the world's best 5G ecosystem by pushing for a '5G strategy' at the national level," President Moon said. "it has set a goal of taking 15 percent of the global market in 2026, creating 600,000 decent jobs and achieving $73 billion in exports. We will form a '5G Plus strategic committee' and push for early activation of 5G by all ministries as a team."
"The government and the private sector will invest more than 30 trillion won together to establish national 5G network at an early date by 2022," he also said. "We will foster new industries and services based on 5G such as network equipment, next-generation smartphones, robots, drones, intelligent CCTVs, self-driving cars, smart factories and smart cities."
In addition, President Moon said the government will give tax benefits to the establishment of the network and create a world-class test bed to boost private investment. He also said that the government will support the establishment of 1,000 5G-factory facilities, train talent that will lead the 5G era and actively support start-ups.
"We can think why we need 5G when smartphones are enough right now," President Moon said. "Fourth-generation mobile communications are fast for now but it will not be fast enough in the near future."
He went on to say, "The Internet of Things used at home, such as refrigerators, washing machines, audio and TV, is increasing, which means more data communication is going to be used. Also, areas such as self-driving cars and smart factories that use data communication will increase rapidly, so existing communication networks will be overloaded. Therefore, the mobile network also needs a wide and fast route of 5G. The 5G is 20 times faster than the 4G and the devices that can be connected are 10 times more," he said.
President Moon also said the government will focus its policy on ensuring that all people enjoy the benefits of the 5G era evenly. "We will work with operators to make sure that there are various low and medium-priced rates that you can choose based on your needs," he said. "The government will support the development of 'Able Tech' of vulnerable people and spread public services so that people with disabilities can easily access new communication devices."
