The value generated by 5G will account for 1.5% of South Korea’s GDP in 2025, report says
The commercial use of 5G technologies in South Korea is expected to generate 47.8 trillion won ($42 billion) in socioeconomic value in 2030, according to a recent study by local telecom operator KT.
The study, published by KT Economics and Management Research Institute, KT’s in-house think tank, estimates that the commercial use of 5G technology will also create at least 30.3 trillion won in socioeconomic value in a shorter timeframe — by 2025. This figure will represent nearly 1.5% of the country’s gross domestic product.
“Like past general-purpose technologies, such as electricity, steam engines and computers, 5G will pioneer the next digital transformation by driving innovation and evolution across our economy and society,” said Kim Hee-Su, head of the KT EMRI. “5G will be used in combination with other key future technologies like artificial Intelligence, big data and internet of things.”
The KT EMRI’s 5G analysis examined South Korea’s 10 major industries — automotive, manufacturing, health care, transportation, agriculture, security and safety, media, energy, logistics and finance.
The study showed that the total amount of socioeconomic value to be generated by 5G technology by these 10 industries in 2030 is estimated at 42.34 trillion won. Another 5.41 trillion won will be generated by cities, non-urban areas, homes and offices, which will be improved by making use of 5G and related future technologies.
Among the 10 industries in the report, the automotive industry is predicted to gain the most in socioeconomic value: 3.3 trillion won in 2025 and 7.2 trillion won in 2030. Vehicle telematics, one of the primary forces behind the increase, will make vehicles safer, call roadside assistance at the touch of a button, dial 911 when the driver is in an accident and introduce other innovative features.
Finance is expected to be second in terms of industry impact with 5.6 trillion won in socioeconomic value in 2030, followed by the media industry with 3.6 trillion won.
Next are health care with 2.9 trillion won; transportation with 2.8 trillion won; distribution with 2.5 trillion won; energy with 1.1 trillion won; security and safety with 0.72 trillion won; and agriculture with 0.26 trillion won.
Earlier this year, KT confirmed plans to launch its commercial 5G network by March 2019. The country’s second-largest telco previously completed a 5G trial during the Winter Olympics Games, which took place in the city of PyeongChang in February. During the PyeongChang Games, KT provided five 5G-driven visual technologies — sync view, interactive time slice, 360-degree virtual reality live broadcasting, omni-point view and a 5G connected bus.
During a keynote presentation at Qualcomm’s 4G/5G Summit, which took place in Hong Kong in October 2017, KT’s SVP of Network Strategy YongGyoo Lee, said that the telco’s 5G deployment plans initially stipulate the use of 28 GHz spectrum for urban hot spots and 3.5 GHz band for urban and rural areas.
