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Speeds in Korea are the world's fastest. Opensignal award winner, SK telecom, sees users experience astonishing average speeds of 69.8Mbps. With 5G adoption moving extremely quickly this speed is set to improve dramatically. Users on Korea's other operators, LG U+ and KT, also see very fast speeds that are so fast that they would win Opensignal's Download Speed award in almost every other country.
All three operators improved their scores in the last six months. Latency is an important measure for web browsing and for online multiplayer gaming and reflects the responsiveness of the network experience. However, SK telecom and KT are close behind with latency scores slightly slower of 40.4 and 38.3 ms respectively. The designers of 5G technology aim to significantly improve latency and because of Korea's very rapid 5G adoption, Korean users should see 5G-related improvements with latency soon.
Sharing video, audio, and photos is a mainstream part of the mobile network experience now. While uploads speeds have not yet been dramatically changed by the arrival of 5G, two of Korea's operators still saw an increase in the upload speeds that their users enjoyed. SK telecom users had a speed boost of almost 1 Mbps to reach 17.0 Mbps, while third placed KT narrowed the gap on the twin leaders with their users' upload speed rising by 1.7 Mbps. While LG U+ was the joint award winner again, its users speeds were unchanged, meaning that it risks losing the upload award to SK telecom next time if SK telecom continues on its current upward trend.
Despite the fast download speeds experienced in Korea, all three operators miss out on an Excellent rating in Video Experience. SK telecom is just 3.1 points off the highest video category, while LG U+ and KT are in the middle of the Very Good category (65 < 75 in our 100-point scale). These scores indicate users will see short video loading times and little stalling during playback. However, operators in other countries where users have slower download speeds are able to offer their users an Excellent Video Experience, showing very fast download speeds do not automatically mean users will enjoy the best Video Experience.
However, this measure saw KT's best result in Opensignal's analysis of Korean users’ mobile network experience. Voice App Experience measures the communication experience typical of popular voice apps like Whatsapp, KaKaoTalk or LINE. On a 100-point scale, KT and SK telecom drew for second place with a score of 79.9 just behind the LG U+ mark of 82.0.
| Mobile Experience Awards South Korea | |||
|---|---|---|---|
December 2019,
South Korea Report
|
S
SK telecom
|
L
LG U+
|
K
KT
|
4G Availability
| |||
Video Experience
| |||
Voice App Experience
| |||
Download Speed Experience
| |||
Upload Speed Experience
| |||
Latency Experience
| |||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
December 2019,
South Korea
|
|---|---|
|
4G Availability
|
L
LG U+
|
|
Video Experience
|
S
SK telecom
|
|
Voice App Experience
|
L
LG U+
|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
S
SK telecom
|
|
Latency Experience
|
L
LG U+
|
|
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
|
December 2019, South Korea
|
|---|---|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
S
SK telecom
L
LG U+
|
|
Video Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
SK telecom
|
L
LG U+
|
K
KT
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Video Experience
| 72.2 (± 0.28) | 68.1 (± 0.48) | 71.5 (± 0.38) |
| 4G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
S
SK telecom
|
72 (± 0.28) |
|
L
LG U+
|
68 (± 0.48) |
|
K
KT
|
72 (± 0.38) |
|
Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
SK telecom
|
L
LG U+
|
K
KT
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | |||
|
4G Voice App Experience
| 80.1 (± 0.18) | 82.2 (± 0.27) | 80.4 (± 0.23) |
| 4G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
S
SK telecom
|
80 (± 0.18) |
|
L
LG U+
|
82 (± 0.27) |
|
K
KT
|
80 (± 0.23) |
|
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
SK telecom
|
L
LG U+
|
K
KT
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Download Speed
| 64.5 (± 0.61) | 43.8 (± 0.63) | 44.8 (± 0.48) |
| 4G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
S
SK telecom
|
64 (± 0.61) |
|
L
LG U+
|
44 (± 0.63) |
|
K
KT
|
45 (± 0.48) |
|
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
SK telecom
|
L
LG U+
|
K
KT
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | |||
|
4G Upload Speed
| 17.3 (± 0.16) | 17.0 (± 0.24) | 13.4 (± 0.12) |
| 4G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
S
SK telecom
|
17 (± 0.16) |
|
L
LG U+
|
17 (± 0.24) |
|
K
KT
|
13 (± 0.12) |
|
Latency Experience
Additional Metrics |
S
SK telecom
|
L
LG U+
|
K
KT
|
|---|---|---|---|
| in ms | |||
|
4G Latency
| 40.0 (± 0.07) | 37.7 (± 0.12) | 37.7 (± 0.10) |
| 4G Latency | in ms |
|
S
SK telecom
|
40 (± 0.07) |
|
L
LG U+
|
38 (± 0.12) |
|
K
KT
|
38 (± 0.10) |
Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
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