South Korea Rolls Out 5G Services On Phones, In Race With U.S. And China

South Korea will become one of the first countries to commercially launch fifth-generation (5G) services as it rolls out on Friday the latest wireless technology with Samsung Electronics’ new 5G-enabled smartphone Galaxy S10.
_Reuters

With one of the world’s top smartphone penetration rates, South Korea is in a race with China, the United States and Japan to market 5G, hoping the technology will spur breakthrough in fields such as smart cities and autonomous cars, and drive up its economic growth that slowed to a six-year low in 2018.

“It is meaningful that South Korean telecom companies are providing services and networks meeting South Korean customers’ high standard in speed and picture quality,” Ryu Young-sang, executive vice president at the country’s top mobile carrier SK Telecom, said on Wednesday.

A few hours after the announcement, U.S. telecoms company Verizon Communications Inc said it was launching Wednesday its 5G service on mobile phones in two cities, moving up its schedule by a week.

“For the first time ever, customers can access a commercial 5G network with the world’s first commercially available 5G-enabled smartphone,” Verizon said in a statement on Wednesday.

U.S. carriers have launched 5G services in limited areas and not on all devices as early as last year. “We launched the first mobile 5G network several months ago and we’ve followed that up with other firsts, including 1 Gig speeds last week with more cities to come soon,” said an AT&T spokesman, disputing South Korea’s first in 5G claim.