Approximately 520 mobile users in Korea have recently filed a joint lawsuit against the country’s three main mobile operators due to the alleged low quality of 5G mobile services, local news service Yonhap reported.
The legal action argues that mobile carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus have offered incomplete 5G services, leading to poor network quality, Kim Jin-wook, an attorney at Korean law firm Joowon, reportedly said.
“The action seeks compensation [from carriers] for failing to meet their obligations,” Kim said. “We plan to file further legal action in stages with more users.”
According to the report, local operators had initially advertised that 5G’s theoretical speeds could be 20 times faster than 4G LTE, but a government report recently found that 5G was around four times faster compared to the previous generation of mobile services.
South Korean telecom operators currently provide 5G services via NonStandalone 5G networks, which depend on previous 4G LTE networks. The country’s three operators launched 5G technology in April 2019, and 5G networks are available mostly in large cities.
SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus are currently preparing to commercialize new 5G technology, including Standalone versions of the 5G networks and millimeter-wave 5G, according to previous reports.
The mmWave 5G service will be initially available for the business-to-business segment. Operators have not yet finalized investment plans for the business-to-consumer sector, as the cost of building additional infrastructure still represents a major issue, according to the reports.
In July of 2020, Korean mobile operators SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus agreed to invest a total of KRW 25.7 trillion ($22 billion) through 2022 to boost 5G infrastructure across the country.
Also, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT recently announced it will award 28 GHz and sub-6 GHz spectrum in November to boost the use of 5G-related services across the country.
The frequencies will be available for mobile operators and for companies operating in different verticals. The Korean government announced it will make available a total of 600 megahertz in the 28 GHz band and 100 megahertz in the 4.7 GHz band.
The 28 GHz band will be divided into 12 blocks and the 4.7 GHz band into 10 blocks, respectively. The spectrum in the 4.7 GHz band will be offered to non-telecom companies, according to the report.
The ministry said that the allocation of these new frequencies will allow companies to operate 5G networks across various industries and offer new service such as smart factories, healthcare, robotics and smart farms.
South Korea ended May with a total of 15.84 million 5G subscribers, according to the latest available data from the Ministry of Science and ICT.
5G subscribers at the end of May accounted for 22% of the total 71.45 million mobile subscriptions in the country.
