By Juan Pedro Tomás
South Korea’s capital Seoul ended March with a total of 37,680 5G base stations, according to local press reports.
Among Seoul’s 25 districts, the top three areas in terms of the number of 5G base stations were the three Gangnam districts of southern Seoul, according to the data published by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
The report also stated that the average number of 5G base stations per district in Seoul is estimated at 1,507 units.
The districts of Gangnam, Seocho and Seocho were the only districts with more than 2,000 5G base stations. These districts represented 20.3 per cent of Seoul’s total 5G base stations as of the end of March.
In contrast, the number of 5G base stations installed in each of the northeastern districts of Dobong, Gangbuk and Geumcheon was less than 1,000 units.
Korean mobile operators have deployed a total of 202,903 5G base stations as of the end of February, according to the latest available figures from the country’s Ministry of Science and ICT.
This figure is equivalent to 23 per cent of total 4G LTE base stations installed in South Korea.
Meanwhile, the number of domestic 5G subscribers reached 21.57 million at the end of February, a number equivalent to half of the number of LTE subscribers, which had amounted to 48.02 million.
The investments carried out by local carriers SK Telecom, KT Corp and LG Uplus in network infrastructure totaled KRW8.20 trillion (US$6.75 billion) last year, down from KRW8.28 trillion in 2020. Their investment in infrastructure declined for two consecutive years after reaching KRW9.6 trillion in 2019, when 5G services were launched.
South Korea was the first country to launch commercial 5G networks in April 2019 and currently has 5G coverage across its 85 cities.
South Korean telecom operators currently provide 5G services via NonStandalone 5G networks, which depend on previous 4G LTE networks.
In June 2018, the ICT ministry completed an auction for 5G frequencies in which local carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus secured spectrum to launch 5G services in the Asian nation.
SK Telecom and KT each won 100 megahertz in the 3.5 GHz band while LG Uplus had obtained a bloc of 80 megahertz of spectrum.
In February, the government of South Korea has postponed an auction to award additional 5G spectrum as local mobile operators SK Telecom and KT have complained about the process.
In December, South Korea’s Science and ICT ministry had said it would open bidding for additional 5G networks in the 3.4-3.42 GHz spectrum, as requested by LG Uplus, the country’s smallest mobile operator.
However, SK Telecom and KT have complained about the ministry’s decision, as they claim that LG Uplus is at a relative advantage as the spectrum it had requested is closest to its current frequencies and will cost considerably less for LG Uplus to utilize it.
