Wireless carriers to invest $22 billion to make S. Korea fully 5G by 2022

(From left) KT CEO Ku Hyeon-mo, Choi Ki-young, Minister of Science and ICT, SKT CEO Park Jung-ho and LG Uplus CEO Ha Hyun-hwoi. [Photo by Yonhap]

Korea wireless carriers pledged to invest about 25 trillion won ($22 billion) by the first half of 2022 to ensure nationwide 5G coverage.

The commitment was made in a meeting among ICT Minister and the heads of SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus.

The telco leaders in the meeting agreed that the 5G network quality is still at an early stage and aggressive investments are needed to address it.

The nation’s three major telcos along with SK Telecom subsidiary SK Broadband will invest 24.5-25.7 trillion won over the next three years to upgrade wireless telecom infrastructure systems.

Under their plan, the 5G connectivity will be available at 4,000 public facilities, subway and railroad stations and 20 expressways around 85 smaller administrative districts across the nation by the first half of 2022.

For this year, additional 5G systems will be installed at key facilities around Seoul and six metropolitan areas.

In response, the government vowed to provide tax benefits to the companies. A 5G stand-alone service designed for better 5G-related solutions in areas like virtual reality and autonomous driving will be commercialized from the second half of this year.

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