South Korea is launching 5G services tomorrow, beating US and China

South Korea will be the first country to commercially launch fifth-generation (5G) services on Friday, April 5. South Korea has one of the world’s top smartphone penetration rates and is in a race with the US, China, and Japan to launch the latest 5G services. The 5G technology offers 20-times faster data speeds than 4G LTE networks and a better support system for artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

This tech will create revolutionary breakthroughs in the fields including smart cities and autonomous cars. It will also help to drive up economic growth that slowed to a six-year low in 2018.

Ryu Young-sang, executive vice president of the SK Telecom said, “It is meaningful that South Korean telecom companies are providing services and networks meeting South Korean customers’ high standard in speed and picture quality”.

He stated, “5G will change the landscape of the gaming industry as it allows games to stream with minimal delay to be played on smartphones”.

Ryu said that right now the SK Telecom company is working on its memory chip SK Hynix, to develop a highly digitized and connected factory, which is powered by 5G technology. The company has a total of 27 million users and is expecting a total of 1 million 5G customers by the end of this year.

A smaller rival company KT Corp, competing with SK Telecom is planning to offer cheaper LTE service plans, with unlimited data and 4-year installments scheme to buy their 5G devices.

Samsung was the first company to launch a 5G powered Galaxy S10 smartphone in February, and a $2000 folding smartphone. Samsung’s rival LG Electronics is also planning to launch a 5G smartphone in South Korea in the coming days. While in the US, carrier Verizon is planning to launch a 5G smartphone on April 11.