The Ministry of Science and ICT will conduct a 5G quality evaluation in 2022 to promote expansion of telecommunications network investment.

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Intelligent Information Society Agency conducted and announced the results of the 2022 Telecommunication Service Reception Area Inspection and Quality Evaluation to provide users with information on wired and wireless telecommunication service reception areas and quality.

This evaluation was conducted on wireless Internet (5G, LTE, 3G, WiFi), wired Internet (100 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps), and mobile video services. The main items are government evaluation focusing on reception area inspection and quality evaluation, user continuous evaluation in which users directly measure with their own terminals, and business operator self-evaluation method.

Considering that this year's 5G service reception area is expanding nationwide, the quality evaluation target area has been expanded to all administrative districts and major townships in 85 cities nationwide to secure a more dense reception area.

■ 5G service coverage check results

The area of outdoor 5G reception areas in 85 cities (as of October) is 33,212.50㎢, an average of 74.4% increase for the three carriers compared to last year. By carrier, it is △SKT 34,241.58㎢ △KT 33,185.10㎢ △LGU+ 32,210.82㎢.

The number of facilities with 5G availability within the facility increased by about 70 year-on-year to an average of 4,492 across the three companies. The average stable connection rate was 96.54%, a 1.18% increase over the previous year.

In addition, 5G has been built in 98% of the subway, and the connectivity rate has improved by 4.35% to an average of 93.74%. KTX has a 97% construction rate and a 82.04% connectivity rate, and highways have a 98% construction rate and a 95.69% connectivity rate.

Meanwhile, the average 5G connection rate in 85 small and medium-sized facilities was 78.22%, which was assessed to be inconvenient for users compared to multi-use facilities.

In terms of 5G service quality indicators, the download transmission speed averaged 896.10 Mbps for the three companies, an 11.8% increase from the previous year. By carrier, SKT was the highest at 1,002.27 Mbps, followed by KT at 921.49 Mbps and LGU+ at 764.55 Mbps.

Measurements of 600Mbps~1Gbps were the most common at 41.18%, and the average delay time for the three companies was 17.89ms, a 3.86% improvement from the previous year. The download speed was the highest in multi-use facilities (amusement parks) and transportation facilities, followed by residential areas and outdoors.

By city size, large cities saw a 10.6% increase year-on-year to 929.64 Mbps, while medium and small cities saw a 14.7% increase year-on-year to 898.95 Mbps.

■ 4G (LTE)·Wi-Fi·Wired Internet·Mobile

The average 4G (LTE) download speed of the three companies was 151.92 Mbps, and the upload speed was 39.39 Mbps, the same as the previous year.

The commercial Wi-Fi download speed was 338.56 Mbps (previous year: 400.85 Mbps) and the open Wi-Fi speed was 353.30 Mbps (previous year: 420.20 Mbps), showing a significant decrease in LG U+ Wi-Fi speed. △Public Wi-Fi download speed was 336.21 Mbps (previous year 328.04 Mbps) △The bus Wi-Fi speed newly measured in 2022 was found to be an average of 104.10 Mbps.

According to the results of the continuous evaluation of wired internet, △1Gbps product download speed was 980.86Mbps on average (962.62Mbps last year), △500Mbps was 493.34Mbps on average (470.08Mbps last year), △10Gbps newly measured in 2022 was 8.52Gbps on average, △5G-class products were 4.14Gbps on average, and △2.5G-class bps products were 2.19Gbps.

For major mobile video services (YouTube, Naver TV, Kakao TV, Netflix, etc.), the average video quality was 4.19 points (4.08 points last year).

The Ministry of Science and ICT stated, “Although the 5th generation reception area and quality have improved, in order to further improve the perceived quality of 5th generation users, it is important for the three telecommunication companies to actively expand their investment in the 5th generation network, and continuous investment in quality management is also necessary for 4th generation (LTE) that is still used by many users.” The government will continue to make efforts to provide more accurate information to users through telecommunication service quality evaluations and to encourage telecommunication companies to expand their investments to promote network construction and quality competition.