5G networks, three years into commercialization, still lack coverage.
The three major mobile carriers signed an MOU for joint use of 5G base stations in rural areas.
Winner of the 5G Industry Partnership category at the GLOMO Awards


While industry, academia, and research are working together to establish 6G standards, 5G technology still faces numerous challenges. In particular, compared to 3G and LTE networks, which cover the entire country except for some remote areas, 5G networks fall woefully short of coverage outside of major urban centers.

The 5G network situation is particularly poor in rural areas. Because 5G waves travel in a highly linear manner, they require a large number of base stations. Consequently, base stations are being installed primarily in densely populated areas, and even this is being hampered by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Science and ICT, the three major mobile carriers (SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus), the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), and the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) reviewed 5G investment, technology implementation, and operational plans for rural areas over a six-month period starting in September 2020 to enhance 5G benefits in these areas. Through this, the plan for joint use of 5G in rural areas was announced in April of this year, and a business cooperation agreement was signed between the three mobile carriers for joint use of base stations in rural areas.

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the three mobile carriers announced on June 1st that they received the '5G Industry Partnership Award' at the GSMA Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO Awards), which evaluates mobile communication-related technologies and services developed over the past year, held on June 30th (local time in Barcelona, Spain). The rural 5G joint use is the world's first and largest collaborative model in which the government and telecommunications companies work together to build a wireless network in a specific area.

This award was highly commended for its participation by all of a country's wireless carriers in promoting nationwide 5G radio access network (RAN) sharing. The rural 5G shared use project, jointly promoted by the three mobile carriers, will be provided without discrimination to subscribers of all three carriers, as well as to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and global roaming subscribers.

As the significance of 5G roaming in rural areas has been recognized, 5G networks in island areas are expected to operate in the form of roaming between the base stations of the three mobile carriers in the future, and its prompt implementation has also become important.

Meanwhile, the GLOMO Awards selected companies and organizations that demonstrated outstanding performance in 24 fields. In Korea, in addition to the shared use of 5G in rural areas, Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G model was selected as the best 5G smartphone, and SKT, the Cultural Heritage Administration, and Google's Changdeokgung AR project won an award in the 'mobile use for accessibility and inclusion' category.