The number of 5G subscribers in South Korea has already surpassed 1 million last month. South Korea's 5G subscriber growth rate is the fastest in the world.
In line with this, three mobile carriers have released 100 days of results to mark 100 days of commercialization of 5G network.
SK Telecom boasted the largest number of 5G subscribers. According to SK Telecom, it had about 550,000 subscribers as of the end of June, becoming the first company in the world to surpass 500,000 5G subscribers. The company is also focusing on VR. It currently has about 9,000 5G contents, including VR, ultra-high definition video and IMAX movies. Of these, there are about 500 VR contents, which is five times more than when it was first commercialized. The number of VR daily viewers rose to 20,000 from the previous 1,000.
The company also strengthened B2B transactions. It signed memorandums of understanding with Samsung Electronics and Cisco last month for 5G Smart Office business and is going to release official services in second half of this year. The company also unveiled its 5G smart office service in the second half of the year, while it also unveiled a 5G smart factory solution last year.
SK Telecom, at the sametime, has also signed an MOU with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power to build a 5G smart power plant and is speeding up efforts to build smart city and self-driving infrastructure with Seoul City and Incheon City.
KT said it currently has the largest number of 5G open base stations among the three mobile carriers. As of July 8, the number of 5G base stations that were actually opened was 42,103. The company will open "5G Coverage Map 3.0" on July 11 to inform the location of the 5G base station.
In addition, the company released "KT 5G Superplan" priced at 80,000 won in time for commercialization of 5G. "KT 5G Superplan" is a service that literally uses 5G data indefinitely. According to KT's analysis of current status of 5G subscribers, more than 82% of them signed up for this service.
With the 5G service, the company also introduced a new communication service called "Narle" to introduce a service that uses 3D avatar in ultra-high definition and communicates each other.
LG Uplus surveyed that the market share of subscribers exceeded 29 percent as of the end of June, so the company expects to exceed 30 percent of the market soon. The company analyzed that its large pop-up stores in areas such as Gangnam Station were effective in holding six kinds of experience events such as AR, VR, professional baseball, golf, idol live, and games.
LG Uplus will establish 80,000 5G base stations within this year, with the center in Seoul, the metropolitan area and 85 cities nationwide. Starting from the second half of this year, it is planning to build large buildings, transfer stations, and other areas with large floating population.
Meanwhile, GSMA estimated that the number of global 5G subscribers stood at about 2.13 million as of the end of June, with South Korea accounting for 1.65 million of them.
