LG Uplus emerged as the leading operator in South Korea in 5G download rates with an average considerably faster than its two rivals, data from Opensignal revealed.

The operator recorded an average of 237.2Mb/s compared with 220.4Mb/s at SK Telecom (SKT) and 214.8Mb/s for KT. Their 5G rate ranged from 3.5-times to 5.2-times faster than typical 4G speeds.

Opensignal noted the operators’ rates are significantly faster than in countries using a similar type of spectrum (3.5GHz), where typical rates are in the 110Mb/s to 170Mb/s range, and highlighted their acheivement despite not using mmWave spectrum.

SKT and LG Uplus had similar 5G availability, with users connected 15.4 per cent and 15.1 per cent of the time respectively, and KT 12.5 per cent.

Overall speed
Analysis of overall download speed experience, based on average data rates across 3G, 4G and 5G combined with time connected to each generation, ranked SKT highest on 110Mb/s, followed by LG Uplus at 95.8Mb/s and KT at 82.2Mb/s.

Opensignal noted the measure is important because users currently spend the minority of their time connected to a 5G service.

The results covered 2.89 million measurements carried on about 218,000 5G devices from 1 February to 30 April across various indoor and outdoor locations.

Operators launched non-standalone 5G service in early April 2019 and had a combined 5.89 million subscribers at end-March.

They deployed an estimated 92,000 base stations nationwide by end-January. Earlier in the month, the Ministry of Science ICT and Future Planning began assessing the quality of their 5G services following complaints and contract cancellations.