On 5th April 2019, South Korea became the first country in the world to commercially launch the fifth-generation 5G service. It beau China and the United States to it. The country rolled out the latest wireless technology with Samsung’s new 5G-enabled Galaxy S10 device.
South Korea aims to use the 5G technology to spur its economic growth that had slowed to a six-year low in 2018. This should help to create a breakthrough in fields like autonomous cars and smart cities.
Executive Vice President of South Korea’s top mobile carrier SK Telecom said it was meaningful that telecom companies in their country were providing services and networks with high standards. He explained that 5G technology will change the game industry by allowing fast streaming.
The future of technology
The 5G technology will offer 20-times faster data speed than 4G technology. It will also create better support for artificial intelligence and virtual reality. It can sometimes offer up to 100-times faster internet speed.
The telecom company rolling out the service, SK Telecom, is spending billions on marketing campaigns for the new 5G product. They are also working with their memory-chip making affiliate SK Hynix to build a highly digitised and connected factory powered by 5G technology.
The company expects about 1 million of its 27 million users to access the 5G technology by the end of 2019. Another service company, KT Corp, is set to offer cheaper 5G plans. It will expectedly have unlimited data and 4-year instalments to buy 5G devices.
Samsung became the first company to unveil the 5G phone in February where it also announced its foldable phone, Samsung Galaxy Fold.
The United States is following very closely with Verizon now also offering 5G unlimited data plans in parts of Chicago and Minneapolis. Customers can now get the service for an extra $10. Some other US network providers like Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T are also looking to roll out the service in a few months.
There are new arguments about who is hitting the market with the technology first. However, South Korea announced the service roll out earlier in the week.