Mobile Network Experience Report South Korea June 2020

South Korea

Mobile Network Experience Report
June 2020

Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumer mobile experience. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding the true experience consumers receive on wireless networks.

Author
Ian Fogg VP Analysis

Key Findings

SK Telecom reaches Excellent in Video Experience

Award-winner SK Telecom is the first operator in South Korea to see its users enjoying an Excellent Video Experience with a score of 75.5 on a one hundred point scale. KT and LG U+ both saw a Very Good experience with scores of 73.4 and 72.4 respectively. In 2020, mobile video streaming is more important than ever to mobile users seeking distraction from global events. With high mobile video use, operators continue to consider ways to manage the vast amount of video traffic differently to other types of data to ensure other mobile apps continue to work well.

A speed of 69.0 Mbps secures the Download Speed Experience award for SK Telecom

Our users saw much faster average download speeds on SK Telecom than on LG U+ or KT. SK Telecom users' speed of 69.0 Mbps is almost 20 Mbps faster than second-placed LG U+ users' speed of 50.8Mbps. KT was third with users seeing overall speeds of 48.1 Mbps.

LG U+ users have the fastest social media sharing experience

Our Upload Speed Experience award is won by LG U+ with our users enjoying upload speeds of 17.5 Mbps. This means users will be able to upload photos or videos more quickly to popular social networks. In our last report, LG U+ shared this award with SK Telecom but has now moved ahead and this time wins the award outright. SK Telecom was in second place with speeds of 16.5 Mbps, while KT was further back at a speed of 13.3 Mbps.

All three operators achieve a Good Voice App Experience

There is little difference between South Korea's three leading operators. Award-winner SK Telecom scored 84.3 on a 0-100 point scale, just ahead of KT on 84.1 and LG U+ on 84.0. These scores represent the excellent overall quality of South Korea's mobile network experience.

Introduction

In our latest report into the mobile network experience of our users in South Korea, we examine the overall mobile experience across seven metrics including Video Experience, Speed, and Voice. For the first time, we give an award for mobile Games Experience in this country.

South Korean users have embraced 5G quickly. All of our 5G users contribute to the overall mobile network experience awards included in this report for South Korea's three leading operators, alongside our users that continue to use 4G and other older technologies. The awards in this report are for the overall mobile experience of our users on each of the leading three operators: KT, LG U+ and SK Telecom.

In addition, we are revealing our first ever 5G awards for South Korea in a companion report to this one. Our new South Korea 5G Mobile Network Experience report focuses on just our 5G users.

Opensignal Awards Table

Mobile Experience Awards South Korea
June 2020, South Korea Report
Video Experience
Games Experience
Voice App Experience
Download Speed Experience
Upload Speed Experience
4G Availability
4G Coverage Experience
Download Image
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
June 2020, South Korea
Video Experience
Voice App Experience
Download Speed Experience
Upload Speed Experience
4G Availability
4G Coverage Experience
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
June 2020, South Korea
Games Experience
Download Image

Overview

Click on metric labels below for a quick preview
Video Experience
in 0-100 points
SK telecom
75.5
LG U+
72.4
KT
73.8
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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National Analysis

Video Experience

Video Experience
in 0-100 points
SK telecom
75.5
LG U+
72.4
KT
73.8
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

Games Experience

Games Experience
in 0-100 points
SK telecom
85.0
LG U+
82.0
KT
85.0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

Voice App Experience

Voice App Experience
in 0-100 points
SK telecom
84.3
LG U+
84.0
KT
84.1
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

Download Speed Experience

Download Speed Experience
in Mbps
SK telecom
69.0
LG U+
50.8
KT
48.1
017.53552.570
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

Upload Speed Experience

Upload Speed Experience
in Mbps
SK telecom
16.5
LG U+
17.5
KT
13.3
05101520
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
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4G Availability

4G Availability
% of time
SK telecom
98.9
LG U+
99.2
KT
98.3
0255075100
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image

4G Coverage Experience

4G Coverage Experience
in 0-10 points
SK telecom
9.8
LG U+
9.4
KT
9.7
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
The brackets represent confidence intervals.
Download Image
Learn more

Opensignal measures the real-world experience of consumers on mobile networks in the places they live, work and travel.

We continually adapt our methodology to best represent the true experience of smartphone users. Therefore, comparisons of the results to past reports should be considered indicative only.

For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple winners.

In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars. In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.

More about Methodology

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For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple operator winners.

In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars.

In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.

Why confidence intervals are vital in analyzing mobile network experience