Nearly 1,000 5G smartphone users in South Korea have expressed interest in taking legal action against the country’s three major telecom operators — SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus due to the alleged poor quality of the service, local news agency Yonhap reported, citing industry sources.
The group plans to file a class action lawsuit in May after adding more customers to to the complaint. The group is seeking at least KRW1 million ($885) in compensation per subscriber from the three mobile operators.
Kim Jin-wook, a lawyer at law firm Joowon, which is spearheading the legal action, claimed the quality of 5G services doesn’t meet expectations, with slower than advertised data rates and coverage limited to major cities despite the service costing more than LTE plans.
“Considering that monthly 5G plans are around KRW50,000 more expensive than 4G LTE plans, we expect around 1 million won in compensation for users subscribed to two-year plans,” said Kim.
Korean carriers had deployed a total of 166,250 5G base stations as of the end of November 20202, according to the report.
In June 2020, Korea’s Ministry of Science ICT and Future Planning said it started to test the quality of 5G services in parts of major cities following complaints and contract cancellations.
South Korea ended January with 12.87 million subscribers in the 5G segment after a net addition of almost 1 million subscribers in the first month of the year, according to the latest available data from the country’s Ministry of Science and ICT.
Korean telcos are expecting a big surge in 5G adoption this year, with top wireless carrier SK Telecom aiming to have 9 million 5G users by the end of the year, and smaller rival LG Uplus targeting 4 million.
SK Telecom added a total of 1.21 million 5G subscribers in the last quarter of 2020. For full 2020, SK Telecom saw the addition of 3.4 million subscribers in the 5G segment, according to previous reports.
Total mobile subscriptions in the Asian nation stood at 70.69 million at the end of January, with 4G subscriptions at 51.9 million, down 660,000 compared to December.
South Korean telecom operators currently provide 5G services via non-standalone 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.
Local mobile carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus are currently preparing to commercialize new technology, such as Standalone versions of the 5G networks and millimeter-wave 5G.
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 through 2022 to boost 5G infrastructure across the country.
