S.Korea rolls out 5G services on phones, in race with U.S. and China (updated)

LG Uplus

03/04/2019 22:20

* S.Korea to roll out 5G network on April 5
    * Hopes on tech breakthrough via 5G from manufacturing to
gaming 
    * SK Telecom, KT Corp try to ease security concerns 

 (Adds AT&T's launch of a U.S. 5G network and Verizon's
Wednesday announcement)
    By Ju-min Park
    SEOUL, April 3 (Reuters) - South Korea will become one of
the first countries to commercially launch fifth-generation (5G)
services as it rolls out on Friday the latest wireless
technology with Samsung Electronics'  005930.KS  new 5G-enabled
smartphone Galaxy S10.
    With one of the world's top smartphone penetration rates,
South Korea is in a race with China, the United States and Japan
to market 5G, hoping the technology will spur breakthrough in
fields such as smart cities and autonomous cars, and drive up
its economic growth that slowed to a six-year low in 2018.
    "It is meaningful that South Korean telecom companies are
providing services and networks meeting South Korean customers'
high standard in speed and picture quality," Ryu Young-sang,
executive vice president at the country's top mobile carrier SK
Telecom  017670.KS , said on Wednesday.
    A few hours after the announcement, U.S. telecoms company
Verizon Communications Inc  VZ.N  said it was launching
Wednesday its 5G service on mobile phones in two cities, moving
up its schedule by a week.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2103QA
    "For the first time ever, customers can access a commercial
5G network with the world’s first commercially available
5G-enabled smartphone," Verizon said in a statement on
Wednesday. 
    U.S. carriers have launched 5G services in limited areas and
not on all devices as early as last year. "We launched the first
mobile 5G network several months ago and we’ve followed that up
with other firsts, including 1 Gig speeds last week with more
cities to come soon," said an AT&T spokesman, disputing South
Korea's first in 5G claim. 
    Telecoms and media company AT&T Inc  T.N  has said it was
the first to launch a "commercial and standards-based" 5G
network in December 2018. The service was made available to
mobile hotspot devices but not yet on phones on Dec. 21 in 12
cities.
    5G will change the landscape of the gaming industry as it
allows games streamed with minimal delay to be played on
smartphones, SK Telecom's Ryu said.
    The technology can offer 20-times faster data speeds than 4G
long-term evolution (LTE) networks and better support for
artificial intelligence and virtual reality with low latency. 
    Sometimes it can offer 100-times faster speeds.
    South Korean carriers have spent billions on campaigns
marketing 5G and, on Wednesday, SK Telecom showed off K-pop
stars and an Olympic gold medalist as its first 5G customers.
    SK Telecom is working with its memory-chip making affiliate
SK Hynix  000660.KS  to build a highly digitised and connected
factory powered by 5G technology, Ryu said. 
    The operator expects about 1 million 5G customers by
end-2019. It has a total of 27 million users.
    Smaller rival KT Corp  030200.KS  is set to offer cheaper
plans than its LTE service, with unlimited data and four-year
installments to buy 5G devices.
    Samsung was the first to unwrap a 5G phone in February when
it unveiled the Galaxy S10 5G and a nearly $2,000 folding
smartphone, putting the world's top smartphone maker by volume
in pole position in the 5G race, some analysts say.
    Smaller local rival LG Electronics Inc  066570.KS  plans to
release its 5G smartphone in South Korea later this month.
       
    SECURITY CONCERNS
    While security concerns over 5G networks using telecom
equipment made by China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd  HWT.UL 
have marred the buildup to the release of these services, South
Korean telcos have tried to shrug them off.
    "I don't think we have a security issue in South Korea,"
Park Jin-hyo, head of SK Telecom's information and communication
tech research centre, told reporters. 
    He added that the company uses advanced technology to block
eavesdropping or hacking into 5G networks.
    Among South Korea's top three telecom operators, SK Telecom
and KT Corp do not use Huawei equipment for 5G. Smaller carrier
LG Uplus Corp  032640.KS  uses Huawei gear.
    But SK Telecom officials said it was likely there will be an
open auction for network equipment makers including Huawei if
South Korea needs more base stations for higher frequencies.
 ($1 = 1,135.5600 won)

 (Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh, Himani
Sarkar, Lisa Shumaker and Diane Craft)
 ((ju-min.park@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5650; Reuters
Messaging: ju-min.park.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))