South Korea has established itself as the early
market-leader for 5G technology deployment with 90% of the Korean population
ready to use 5G, according to global technology and telecom analyst
Omdia’s 5G Market Progress
Assessment.
To date, 5G adoption in the country has grown to
4.67 million, which Omdia attributes to strong government support and a vibrant
supplier ecosystem.
“The global market is steadily gearing up for 5G deployment,
but right now South Korea is leading the way,” said Stephen Myers, Omdia’s
principal analyst. “We can expect to see a much larger
number of commercial 5G launches in major global markets in the next 12-18
months as more spectrum is released across the world.”
The three leading
Korean service providers have all made available commercial 5G mass-market
offerings, and mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services have been
launched in the country using 2680MHz of 5G spectrum across the 3.5GHz and
28GHz bands.
Earlier this year, Korean
TV and radio network SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System), using LiveU's integrated
5G technology, provided a live broadcast of the election day coverage in South Korea using Korea
Telecom’s network.
LiveU's devices were used to cover
the polling stations, major candidates' offices and reactions to the election
results under the strict safe distancing measures in place due to the Covid-19
pandemic. All the live feeds were streamed to a single server and completely
synched, operating as part of a cost-effective, remote at-home production
model.
Omdia’s 5G report analysed
22 leading 5G countries’ deployment of 5G technology, assessing the progress of
5G based on operator launches, network coverage and subscriber take-up, as well
as 5G spectrum availability and the regulatory ecosystem.
Data was collected
during end-December period and was originally due for publication in mid-March,
but was delayed till June due to Covid-19.