Wi-Fi 6 can handle data from multiple devices in parallel.
18,000 Aging Public Wi-Fi Spots to Be Replaced with Wi-Fi 6
41,000 new public Wi-Fi locations to be built by 2022.


The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 26th that as part of its Digital New Deal policy, it will push to improve the quality of aging public Wi-Fi installed in public places such as community centers, libraries, and welfare centers by the end of this year.

To this end, an agreement for business promotion was signed on the 24th with the National Information Society Agency (NIA) and the three mobile carriers currently operating public Wi-Fi.

The Ministry of Science and ICT established public Wi-Fi in 10,969 locations nationwide from 2012 to 2017 through matching between local governments and telecommunication companies to reduce household telecommunication costs and improve telecommunication accessibility for local residents.

Among the public Wi-Fi installed at that time, approximately 18,000 APs installed before 2014 continued to have quality issues such as slow speeds and connection failures as the equipment usage period (6 years) exceeded.

The Ministry of Science and ICT stated, “Existing, outdated equipment will be replaced with Wi-Fi 6,” and “Quality issues such as speed and connection delays that were significantly reduced when multiple users were connected will be resolved, resulting in a noticeable improvement in perceived speed.”

Also, already built public place AP In areas where coverage is limited (such as bus terminals and libraries), additional APs will be installed to expand service coverage. As of 2017, there were 60,581 public Wi-Fi hotspots in Korea.

Wi-Fi 6 supports bandwidths from 600 Mbps to 9.6 Gbps. It supports Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) technology, enabling simultaneous parallel processing of data from multiple devices and offering faster response times compared to Wi-Fi 5.

Heo Seong-wook, director of the Ministry of Science and ICT's Information Security Network Policy Division, said, "We will build 41,000 new public Wi-Fi points in public places by 2022 to create an environment where people can freely use data anywhere in the country."

Meanwhile, it has not yet been revealed which manufacturer's equipment will be used.