South Korea’s ICT ministry confirmed it will launch an auction next month to award additional 5G network spectrum for the country’s major mobile carriers, local news agency Yonhap reported.
Last month, the Korean government had agreed to open bidding for additional 5G frequencies in the 3.4- to 3.42 GHz spectrum as requested by local carrier LG Uplus.
The ministry also confirmed that that the price of the 20 megahertz to be awarded at the auction will be set at 135.5 billion won ($113.5 million), according to the report.
In June 2018, the ICT ministry completed an auction for 5G frequencies in which local carriers SK Telecom, KT Corp. and LG Uplus had secured spectrum to launch 5G services in the Asian nation.
SK Telecom and KT each won 100 MHz in the 3.5 GHz band while LG Uplus had obtained a bloc of 80MHz of spectrum.
Under the terms of the auction process, the Korean government will also require the winning carrier to install over 150,000 5G base stations by 2025.
The report noted that SK Telecom and KT have complained about the ICT ministry’s decision to award this additional spectrum as they argue that this will be the first time an auction will be opened upon request by a single mobile carrier.
They also claim that it was LG Uplus’ own decision to bid for only 80 MHz in 2018.
The total number of 5G subscribers in South Korea reached 20.19 million in November 2021, accounting for around 28% of the total 72.57 million mobile subscriptions in the Asian nation, according with the latest data from the Ministry of Science and ICT.
South Korea was the first country to launch commercial 5G networks in April 2019 and currently has 5G coverage across its 85 cities.
The 5G users figure at the end of November marks an increase from 19.38 million 5G subscriptions in October.
SK Telecom, the country’s largest mobile operator by subscriptions, ended November with 9.52 million 5G subscribers, followed by KT Corp. with 6.16 million and LG Uplus Corp. with 4.46 million. South Korean telecom operators currently provide 5G services via NonStandalone 5G networks, which depend on previous 4G LTE networks.
In July 2021, the Korean government had 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 spectrum will be available for mobile operators and for companies operating in different verticals. The ICT ministry had 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.
