South Korea Planning 5G Service by 2020 – 1000x faster than 4G

South Korea’s Ministry of Science and Technology had recently announced plans of spending $1.5 billion on building a national 5G wireless network that will be commercially available by 2020. The 5G network is expected to be 1,000 times faster than the existing 4G network. This means the users can download an 800-megabyte movie in just one second.

The 4G market is still a relatively young one and might even take time to establish itself as a norm in the tech world. However, in South Korea, 4G connectivity has been running as a commercial service since 2010. Hence, the prime focus is now firmly on 5G. The country has given priority to the development of key features for the 5G service, which includes cutting-edge social networking services and ultra-HD and hologram transmission.

As per the plan, there will be a trial 5G service that will be out in 2017 and a fully commercial service will be rolled out in December 2020. The ministry also stated that the 5G service will be tested on social networking services as early as next year before expanding to include cloud services and 3D images in 2017.  The full range of services will be tested at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang in 2018.

South Korea is determined to protect its position as the worldwide leader in super-fast internet connections. With a population of around 50 million, 78% of the people use smartphones, and among the 18-24 year olds, the proportion rises to a staggering 97%.

Staggeringly, this superfast speed would make it possible for those traveling in bullet trains at 310 mph to get access to their preferred social media networks and their e-mails. The network would also be a huge boon for the nations mobile and telecommunications industries. South Korea is home to other tech giants like Samsung and LG, and is renowned for being an interconnected nation as well.