Ministry of Science and ICT Announces 2019 Telecommunications Service Quality Evaluation Results
Average LTE download and upload speeds maintained at last year's levels
Commercial and public Wi-Fi improved by 9% and 11.5% respectively compared to the previous year.

Throughout 2019, the average download speed of domestic LTE services was 158.53 Mbps and the upload speed was 42.83 Mbps, maintaining a level similar to the previous year.

The average download speed of commercial WiFi was recorded at 333.51 Mbps, and that of public WiFi at 394.76 Mbps, showing improvements of 9% and 11.5%, respectively, compared to last year.
The Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Information Society Agency released the results of the '2019 Telecommunications Service Quality Assessment' conducted to provide quality information on wired and wireless telecommunications services.

The telecommunications service quality evaluation was conducted through the following methods: ▲measurement of wired and wireless communication service and voice call quality ▲verification of the accuracy of communication service coverage information disclosed by telecommunications companies ▲continuous user evaluation in which users measure communication quality using their own devices ▲and operator self-evaluation.

The subjects of evaluation include wireless internet such as LTE, WiFi, and 3G; mobile voice calls such as VoLTE and 3G; wired internet such as 500Mbps and 1Gbps; and coverage information provided by telecommunication companies; while the target areas are administrative districts nationwide, including cities and rural areas; and areas with high floating populations.It was carried out focusing on theme areas such as in-buildings and subways, and vulnerable areas such as sea routes, inhabited islands, and hiking trails.

In order to increase the reliability of data and reduce the quality gap between urban and rural areas, the measurement weighting for urban and rural areas was maintained at a 1:1 ratio during the quality evaluation of LTE and 3G communication services this year, just as it was last year, and areas that have not been evaluated for the past three years and areas with quality complaints were included in the evaluation areas to create an equitable quality environment for users.


Average LTE and WiFi speeds are good
The average LTE download speed was 158.53 Mbps (150.68 Mbps in 2018), an increase of 5.2% compared to the previous year, while the upload speed was 42.83 Mbps (43.93 Mbps in 2018), a decrease of 2.5% compared to the previous year, remaining at a similar level to last year.
By region, LTE download speeds in large cities increased to 183.58 Mbps (164.64 Mbps in 2018) compared to last year, while those in rural areas remained at a similar level to last year at 128.52 Mbps (126.14 Mbps in 2018), showing that the gap between urban and rural areas increased by 43.75 Mbps (31.01 Mbps in 2018) compared to the previous year.

When focusing on areas with high pedestrian traffic, the download speed in underground shopping malls was the highest at 275.46 Mbps, while KTX train cars were the lowest at 84.85 Mbps. For commercial Wi-Fi, the terminal was the highest at 434.40 Mbps and the subway car was the lowest at 58.50 Mbps.

The average download speed of WiFi was recorded at 333.51 Mbps for commercial WiFi (305.88 Mbps in 2018) and 394.76 Mbps for public WiFi (354.07 Mbps in 2018), showing improvements of 9% and 11.5%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
The perceived video quality of mobile video services, including YouTube, Naver TV Cast, and Kakao TV, was recorded at 4.14 out of 5 points, which is better than the international standard (4 points), and the transmission speed of mobile video was recorded at 16.63 Mbps (network speed 132.34 Mbps).


Telecom companies' internal evaluation results similar to government evaluation
As a result of checking the wired and wireless communication coverage maps provided by telecommunication companies on their websites, it was found that as of October 2019, 3G, WiFi, and wired internet coverage matched by more than 98%.

It was found that LTE coverage was overstated by 5.33% (12.94% in 2018) and improved compared to last year, so the government plans to issue corrective measures to telecommunication companies regarding the overstated coverage based on the results of this coverage inspection.

The evaluation results for gigabit wired internet, which switched to continuous user evaluation starting this year, showed that the average download and upload speeds for the 500Mbps class were 473.22Mbps and 476.09Mbps, respectively, while for the 1Gbps class The average download and upload speeds were recorded at 951.67 Mbps and 949.19 Mbps, respectively.

LTE speeds measured directly by users ranged from a maximum of 150.89 Mbps to a minimum of 24.27 Mbps depending on the device performance, and LTE download speeds measured with a device similar to the government evaluation recorded 150.89 Mbps, showing a figure similar to the government evaluation result of 158.53 Mbps.

The average download speed of high-speed internet (100Mbps), conducted autonomously by operators, was 99.27Mbps and the upload speed was 98.85Mbps, maintaining a level similar to last year. The call success rate for voice calls was found to be good, recording 99.58% for VoLTE and 99.38% for 3G.

Hong Jin-bae, Director General of Telecommunications Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, “According to the results of this year’s quality assessment, LTE service quality remains at a similar level to last year despite the introduction of 5th generation (5G) mobile communication services.” He added, “In 2020, we plan to conduct a quality assessment of 5G to encourage telecommunication companies’ investment in 5G and to address users’ concerns regarding 5G coverage and communication quality. We plan to announce the basic direction of the assessment in early 2020.”

Meanwhile, the government has been conducting annual quality assessments since 2007 in accordance with the Telecommunications Business Act, with the aim of providing users with information on telecommunications service quality, encouraging operators to improve communication quality, and enhancing user benefits.r />
The results of the 2019 quality evaluation are scheduled to be posted on Smart Choice and the Public Data Portal around January.