Seoul, (Samajweekly) South Korea has the fastest 5G download speed in the world, reaching over 350 megabits per second (Mbps), a report showed on Monday.
The country’s 5G download speed stood at an average 351.2 Mbps, followed by Saudi Arabia at 272.8 Mbps and Taiwan at 247.7 Mbps, industry tracker Opensignal said, citing data collected between September 1 and November 29 in 15 global markets with 5G networks, reports Yonhap news agency.
The result marks an improvement for South Korea from a previous report by Opensignal in October, which had found the country’s 5G download speed as the world’s second-fastest after Saudi Arabia.
South Korea was the first country to commercialise the latest generation network in April last year and has racked up just under 10 million 5G users as of end-October, accounting for 14 per cent of the country’s total 70 million mobile subscriptions.
The time South Korean 5G users spent connected to the network, however, stood at 24.6 per cent, behind Kuwait at 29 per cent and Saudi Arabia at 27.8 per cent, according to the Opensignal report.
South Korea has yet to commercialise the standalone version of 5G, requiring support from past generation networks, such as 4G LTE.
The country’s three major mobile carriers promised earlier this year to spend up to 25.7 trillion won ($23.3 billion) until 2022 to update network infrastructure and establish nationwide 5G coverage.
