Expand coverage to 85 cities and towns within the year
Mandatory provision of 5G coverage information to be completed within this month
5G service facilities in subways jointly built by the three mobile carriers

On the 23rd, the Ministry of Science and ICT held a meeting of the '5G Service Inspection Public-Private Joint TF' with the participation of mobile carriers and terminal/equipment manufacturers in the Ministry of Science and ICT conference room.

At the meeting, the government, mobile carriers, and manufacturers all agreed that it was important to pool public and private capabilities to address the public's inconveniences related to using 5G services.

In addition to checking the status of each company, we discussed solutions for early stabilization of 5G services.


5G coverage will expand to 93% of the population by the end of this year.
Currently, a total of 50,512 5G base stations have been deployed, primarily in the metropolitan area and other major cities. The three mobile carriers plan to deploy 230,000 base stations by the end of the year, rapidly expanding 5G service coverage to neighborhoods in 85 cities. This represents 93% of the total population. The Ministry of Science and ICT will actively support the completion of the nationwide network by 2022.

Some manufacturers' base station equipment, which had previously experienced setbacks, are now in mass production and are expected to be supplied smoothly starting in May, contributing to the expansion of coverage.

To improve the indoor reception environment, the three mobile carriers have agreed to jointly build and utilize related facilities to provide smooth 5G services within subway lines 1 to 9 in the metropolitan area, and have begun full-scale work.

Additionally, the government will discuss ways to build a 5G network and provide services using 5G in-building equipment in approximately 120 buildings nationwide, including airports and large shopping malls, and plans to begin providing services as early as June.

To strengthen the provision of information on coverage, the government has made it mandatory to specify the obligation to provide coverage information in the terms and conditions, and the three mobile carriers provide coverage maps on their websites (LG U+ expected to be 4.27, SKT and KT already provide them) and plan to continue to improve accuracy in the future.

To ensure thorough notification of coverage upon subscription, the government has recommended that coverage and other items be included as mandatory checklist items on subscription applications, and mobile carriers plan to strengthen education, management, and supervision of distribution channels (dealers and retailers).

Meanwhile, through cooperation between mobile carriers and manufacturers, it was decided to quickly improve the phenomenon in which mobile phones display 5G signals even when using LTE signals with a 5G base station nearby.


Optimization work is being implemented to ensure 5G speeds.
To ensure proper 5G speed, the three mobile carriers are continuously working on optimization after visiting the site in person to re-measure the speed when complaints are filed.

To increase 5G speeds, the three mobile carriers are also expanding base stations., we plan to continue to pursue network optimization (beamforming, simultaneous use of 5G-LTE, etc.) and stabilization, and improvement of base station performance.

The intentional slowdown in LTE speeds that some have raised is theoretically and realistically unlikely, and mobile carriers are viewing it as a temporary phenomenon that occurs during the optimization process and are addressing it through SW updates, etc.


The disconnection phenomenon is decreasing
Mobile carriers and manufacturers announced that the "disconnection phenomenon," which occurs when switching from 5G shadow areas to 4G, such as some service interruptions and loss of coverage, has been decreasing following the distribution of supplementary patches and software updates. They agreed to continue working closely with mobile carriers and manufacturers to resolve any remaining issues.

Regarding the upcoming 5G-only phones (V50 ThinQ, Galaxy Fold), manufacturers and mobile carriers plan to release them after sufficient quality stabilization.

Going forward, the government, mobile carriers, and manufacturers plan to continue strengthening cooperation to improve the quality of 5G services that citizens can experience from a citizen's perspective, and the next meeting is scheduled to be held on April 30th.