Korea to test mmWave 5G tech in Seoul subways

Minister of Science and ICT Lim Hye-sook, second from left, applauds ahead of a meeting with heads of the country's three mobile carriers ― KT CEO Ku Hyeon-mo, left, SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho, third from left, and LG Uplus CEO Hwang Hyeon-sik ― at the Government Complex in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap

The ICT ministry said Monday it will work with the country's wireless service providers to test 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) technology in Seoul's subway system in a move to improve network services and speed up its commercialization.

South Korea's 5G networks are currently deployed on the mid-band spectrum, leading to relatively slower speeds than on the high-band mmWave spectrum, which can theoretically be up to 20 times faster than the current 4G LTE network.

The ministry said it would work with the country's three major carriers ― SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus ― as well as Seoul Metro to establish a “backhaul” network based on 5G mmWave for Wi-Fi on the subway system that is expected to dramatically improve Wi-Fi services.

The carriers will test the technology across a 5.4-kilometer section on Line 2 from Sinseoldong to Seongsu stations with network equipment from Samsung Electronics.

The move comes as the government seeks to encourage more investment from the mobile carriers to improve 5G services.

The administration is aiming for nationwide coverage by 5G networks by the end of next year after they first went “live” in April 2019.

Although carriers have quickly expanded their network coverage, they have so far been reluctant to commercialize 5G mmWave amid a lack of services that can fully utilize the fast speeds the technology offers.

The vast majority ― 71 percent ― of the country's mobile users were still on 4G networks as of April, compared with 21 percent on 5G, although average 5G download speeds were estimated to be around four times faster than 4G LTE last year.

Carriers are currently testing other mmWave 5G services with a focus on business applications, such as live video feeds of sports games in virtual reality and autonomous delivery robots. (Yonhap)