South Korea’s government aims to award spectrum in both 3.5GHz and 28GHz bands
South Korean mobile operators have until next week in order to apply for 5G licenses in a spectrum auction to be carried out by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
The Korean government said that the country’s three mobile carriers — SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus — are set to submit their applications on Monday, June 4, for an auction scheduled to take place on June 15.
The three mobile operators are fine-tuning their final tactics to take part in the spectrum auction as the government plans to limit their bidding amounts to prevent the auction from becoming too competitive, local press reported, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
Ministry officials said the allocation of the new frequencies could expedite the commercialization of 5G technology, currently slated to start in March 2019.
The three telcos will compete for 28 blocks of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band and 24 blocks in the 28 GHz band.
The government had previously confirmed that minimum bidding price for the 3.5 GHz blocks will be 2.65 trillion won ($2.46 billion), while for the 28 GHz blocks bidding will start at 621.6 billion won ($578 million). In 2016, the opening price for the 4G spectrum auction was set at 2.6 trillion won.
Operators can start using the 5G frequencies in December, with the 3.5 GHz band covering a ten-year period and the 28 GHz band a five-year term.
In April, South Korean operators unveiled plans to share the costs for the deployment of a nationwide 5G network in the Asian country. The initiative reportedly will be carried out by local telcos SK Telecom, KT, LG Uplus as well as broadband operator SK Broadband. This shared infrastructure projects had the main aim of avoiding redundant investment in 5G deployments, according to officials from the Ministry of Science and ICT.
The initiative is expected to generate savings of nearly 1 trillion won over the next ten next years.
Local carriers have been carrying out 5G trials to pave the way for the commercial launch of 5G technology in the country.
Last month, KT confirmed plans to launch its commercial 5G network by March 2019.
The operator said that its 5G rollout will not be based on the Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) model currently being pushed forward by U.S telco Verizon. The country’s second largest telco has recently completed a 5G trial during the Winter Olympics Games, which took place in the city of PyeongChang February 9-25.
In November 2017, LG Uplus signed a partnership with Chinese vendor Huawei to complete a large-scale 5G network test in a pre-commercial environment in Gangnam District, Seoul. The vendor said this network consists of both 3.5 GHz and 28 GHz base stations. The test also helped to successfully verify new technologies including IPTV 4K Video and many other future-proof commercial 5G services.
In October 2017, SK Telecom carried out a successful demonstration of network communications in a real-world setting. SK Telecom used an in-building relay repeater operating in both 28 GHz and 3.5 GHz spectrum bands in the trial network at the company’s Bundang office, in Seoul.
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