On April 3rd, just a few hours before the United States launched its own service, South Korea became the first country to launch fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology mobile plans. Confident that their systems could handle it, three South Korean mobile service companies (SKT, LG U+, KT) had been preparing this for months, promising consumers faster internet speed, in theory about 20 times faster than 4G wireless. This would allow for better accommodation of other technologies such as virtual reality (VR) systems and self-driving cars.
However, many consumers were not as optimistic as the service companies. 5G wireless plans are more expensive than 4G wireless, and they were not getting what they were promised. Just a few hours after 5G’s launch, many people reported problems. Many of the problems stemmed from their phones using 4G wireless even though their mobile plan is supposed to use 5G wireless, and no significant difference showed in the speed between 4G and 5G.
Regarding the speed, the service companies said it was true 5G wireless is much faster than 4G. However, due to limitations of real-life implications, it only came to be 3 or 4 times faster than 4G wireless. A spokesperson from KT said, “5G wireless at its infant stage. As more infrastructure for 5G is planned and constructed around the area, we will see a wider gap in speed between 5G and 4G plans.”
As for 5G mobile phones using 4G service, there was a similar problem; Not enough infrastructure. According to an employee working in a related field, “This problem happens because of not enough coverage for 5G wireless. It also happened when 4G wireless first launched, with 4G phones using 3G wireless instead. This will improve over time.” As of today, only large areas of Seoul and a few major cities support 5G wireless, while the rest of Korea still relies on 4G wireless.
Even with this explanation, service companies are receiving criticism. Many people thought they were not ready to launch 5G wireless this early, but they launched it anyway to be recognized as the “first launch” of 5G wireless technology. However, with these many problems, it is possible it won’t be recognized as the first 5G wireless launch internationally.
Still, if it can reach its full potential 5G technology is revolutionary. It is designed to break through the limits of what 4G wireless could not handle. Hopefully, in the future 5G will works without problems, and people might say, “4G is too slow for my needs.”
Written by Sungwon Mun | Staff Writer
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