5G Underwhelms in Its First Big Test in South Korea
5G
Underwhelms in Its First Big Test
In South Korea, where
the next-generation wireless network has been rolled out widely, download
speeds have risen but many users aren’t impressed
SEOUL—When
5G services launched here in April, Jang Dong-gil was among the first wave of
South Koreans to sign up.
Now eight months in, Mr. Jang, a 30-year-old tech company
worker, has a chilling review for the next-generation technology: 5G hasn’t
lived up to the hype.
“I don’t feel the difference,” said Mr. Jang, who uses a
5G-enabled Samsung
Electronics Co. handset.
On many days, he said, he switches off his 5G service altogether because his
connection often drops as his phone pingpongs between 5G and the existing 4G
LTE network.
For most of 2019, South Korea was
home to the vast majority of the world’s 5G users, offering the broadest
lessons in what the next-generation network has to offer. Though it is still
early in the global rollout, 5G service in South Korea has proved more of a
future promise than a technological breakthrough.
5G launched during the past year promising to help power a
future of autonomous cars, virtual reality and telesurgery—boasting speeds
potentially up to 100 times faster than today’s 4G networks. The next-generation
network’s potential has set off a race between Beijing and Washington, which
has pressured allies to avoid adopting equipment made by China’s Huawei
Technologies Co. over national-security and other concerns.
Many countries are scrambling to deploy the superfast network,
hoping homegrown companies can enjoy an early advantage providing new, popular
services like those from Uber Technologies Inc., Instagram
and Netflix Inc. that
flourished during the 4G era. Currently, few, if any, 5G apps have emerged that
would justify an upgrade by consumers.
Larger countries are just beginning
the transition. In the U.S., 5G services have been rolled out in select
cities—though adoption remains modest, requiring consumers to buy a new phone
and, in some cases, subscribe to a top-tier, unlimited data plan.
In China, the government has prioritized expanding access to 5G
since its launch in November. By the end of 2020, China’s 5G subscribers are
estimated to hit 120 million, said Chris Lane, an analyst at Bernstein
Research. But initial 5G showcases have been limited to tests such as remote
telesurgery procedures or streaming a dance performance in a remote village.
South Korea, by contrast, is much further along and is expected
to end 2019 with more than 4.5 million subscribers among its population of 51
million, according to telecom analysts.
In April, the
country’s top three carriers— KT Corp. , SK Telecom Co. and LG Uplus Corp. —launched 5G service on the same day Verizon Communications Inc. debuted
in two U.S. cities. From the start, about half of South Korea’s population
could have access to 5G service after buying a network-enabled device.
On their 5G phones, South Korean users can live-stream sports
with a 360-degree view of the action, watching from any angle and in slow
motion. Visitors to a Seoul park can summon a giant cat on their phone’s screen
as they take in the scenery using augmented reality. Another app lets people
gather in virtual-reality rooms to watch baseball games or concerts together.
But such 5G flourishes have yet to draw a large audience,
industry analysts say. “There’s no killer 5G app,” said Woody Oh, a Seoul-based
analyst at Strategy Analytics.
“As far as adoption goes, we’re still at the very start,” said
Julian Gorman, head of Asia-Pacific for GSMA, a trade association for mobile
carriers. “We’re eight months into a cycle that’s going to be many years in
length,” he said.
The 3G network,
which enabled data transfers among device users and launched in 2001, didn’t
fully kick off until Apple Inc. ’s
first iPhone came out in 2007. It took years for its successor, 4G, to bring in
ride-sharing platforms like Uber and Grab Holdings Inc. since it launched in
2011.
For now, 5G’s main visible benefit lies in transferring large
amounts of data quickly, such as downloading movies faster and streaming
high-resolution content seamlessly. Today, some 70% of data traffic carried
from mobile devices to an operator comes from video content, compared with less
than 25% five years ago, said Mr. Gorman. That figure is expected to rise
further with 5G.But telecom experts say 5G’s
advantages are hard for consumers to experience with smartphones. The bigger
leap will be felt with self-driving cars or smart cities, they say.
For current users, though, a key challenge is simply staying
connected to 5G. Yun Seung-yeol, a 27-year-old architectural designer in South
Korea, was given a big enticement to sign up for the new service: He got
subsidies from his telecom provider to shave about two-thirds off the roughly
$1,000 price tag for a 5G-enabled Galaxy Note 10 device.
He said he notices a difference on the superfast network only
when downloading files or images on his phone. Mr. Yun, who has an hour-long
commute to his Seoul office, said he has turned off the 5G feature on his
device for the past month because he kept losing connection when he left Seoul
for his home in a neighboring city. He is considering switching back to a 4G
data plan if the situation doesn’t improve.
“For now, I’m not recommending anyone to use 5G,” Mr. Yun said.
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