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While SK telecom wins the 5G Download Speed award, our users on all three operators have seen their 5G download speeds increase since the last report. On two operators, our users see average 5G download speeds go over 400 Mbps: LG U+ users reached 414 Mbps, up from 355.4 Mbps and SK telecom users saw an even greater increase with 5G Download Speed rising from 399.3 Mbps to now hit 467.4 Mbps.
With an average 5G upload speed of 37.6 Mbps our SK telecom users have the fastest average experience when sharing files or media. LG U+ pulls clear of KT — with which it tied last time — to be second with a 5G Upload Speed score of 33.2 Mbps, up from 27.5 Mbps in the previous report.
All three operators jointly win the award with statistically tied scores of 91, 91.5 and 91.3 on a 100-point scale. This means LG U+ and SK telecom have caught up with KT, which previously won this award outright. 5G Games Experience quantifies the quality of smartphone users' experience when playing real-time multiplayer games over 5G networks.
In the last report, all three operators had an identical score of 5.7 for 5G Reach on a 10 point scale. But now SK telecom leads with a score of 6.5 ahead of KT and LG U+ which are tied on 6.2. On 5G Availability, SK telecom has jumped from third place to first since the last report. SK telecom users had an active 5G connection 30.8% of the time, ahead of KT with a 5G Availability score of 28.6% and LG U+ with 26.3%.
Two operators narrowly win the award with statistically tied scores of 84.6 for LG U+ and 84.8 for SK telecom on a 100 point scale. KT is close behind with a score of 84.4. 5G Voice App Experience analyzes the use of real-time voice communications with popular apps, examples of this type of app include: KakaoTalk, LINE, Facetime, Skype and WhatsApp when connected with 5G technology.
South Korea is arguably the leading 5G market globally because of very high 5G adoption and an extremely good standard of 5G experience. At the end of September, the three mobile operators reported in their financial results a combined 18.4 million 5G subscriptions out of a population of 51 million inhabitants of which SK telecom reported 8.7m, KT 5.6m and LG U+ 4.1m 5G subscriptions.
South Korea also topped many of the categories in Opensignal's Global 5G Benchmark analysis just published on November 30. South Korea was in the top spot for 5G Download Speed, 5G Games Experience, 5G Voice App Experience and 5G Availability.
However, despite South Korea's strong 5G experience and high levels of adoption, expectations have also been very high among Koreans and there has been some disappointment with 5G as a result. Opensignal has also published a companion report on the overall mobile experience of all users in South Korea across all generations of mobile technology including 5G.
| 5G Mobile Experience Awards South Korea | |||
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December 2021,
South Korea Report
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K
KT
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L
LG U+
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S
SK telecom
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5G Availability
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5G Reach
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5G Video Experience
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5G Games Experience
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5G Voice App Experience
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5G Download Speed
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5G Upload Speed
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Mobile Experience Awards Winners
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December 2021,
South Korea
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5G Availability
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S
SK telecom
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5G Reach
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S
SK telecom
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5G Video Experience
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S
SK telecom
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5G Download Speed
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S
SK telecom
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5G Upload Speed
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S
SK telecom
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Mobile Experience Awards Draws
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December 2021, South Korea
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5G Games Experience
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K
KT
L
LG U+
S
SK telecom
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5G Voice App Experience
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L
LG U+
S
SK telecom
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SK telecom takes the 5G Availability award with a score of 30.8% up from 25.6% in the previous Opensignal report. KT is in second place, as users had an active 5G connection 28.6% of the time ahead of LG U+ with a score of 26.3%. Previously SK telecom was in third and KT and LG U+ had jointly won the Opensignal 5G Availability award.
When we consider the share of locations where Opensignal users have seen a 5G signal, SK telecom also comes out on top now. SK telecom scored 6.5 for 5G Reach on a 10-point scale, ahead of KT and LG U+ which were tied with a score of 6.2.
All three operators saw their 5G Reach score increase since the last report. Then, all three scored an identical 5.7. However, SK telecom's score has risen by more than KT and LG U+'s 5G Reach score to win the award outright this time.
In 5G Video Experience, SK telecom holds onto its award with a score of 80.7 on a 100-point scale. However, KT and LG U+ are close behind with statistically tied scores of 79.1 and 78.3.
On all three operators Opensignal users had an Excellent (75 or above) 5G Video Experience. This means there was a very consistent experience across all users, video streaming providers and resolutions tested, with fast loading times and almost non-existent stalling.
5G Video Experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over operators' 5G networks. The metric is derived from an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between real-world technical parameters that Opensignal measures at scale — including picture quality, video loading time and stall rate — with the perceived video experience as reported by real people.
In perhaps the greatest prize to compete for given the popularity of multiplayer games in the country — 5G Games Experience — there is nothing to separate the scores on all three operators who share the 5G Games Experience award with scores of 91 or just over on a 100-point scale. All three operators rank as Excellent (85 or above) meaning that nearly all respondents felt like they had control over the game and they received immediate feedback on their actions. There was not a noticeable delay in almost all cases.
In the last Opensignal 5G Experience report KT won the 5G Games Experience award outright. But now SK telecom and LG U+ have closed the gap with KT.
LG U+ and SK telecom jointly win the 5G Voice App Experience award with statistically tied scores of 84.6 and 84.8, respectively, on a 100-point scale. 5G Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience on 5G networks for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — examples of such mobile voice apps include LINE, WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger — using a model derived from an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach for quantifying overall voice call quality and a series of calibrated technical parameters. This model characterizes the exact relationship between the technical measurements measured across Opensignal users in the real world and perceived call quality.
All three operators increased their 5G Download Speed score in this report compared with the previous Opensignal report. Our KT users' average 5G download speed increased from 327.4 Mbps to 367.6 Mbps now. But most striking is the experience of our LG U+ and SK telecom users who saw their speeds pass the 400 Mbps mark.
Using LG U+ our users saw average 5G download speeds jump from 355.4 Mbps to 414 Mbps. Even more impressively, our SK telecom users' 5G Download Speed increased from 399.3 Mbps to hit 467.4 Mbps now and as a result SK telecom wins the 5G Download Speed award.
SK telecom also wins the 5G Upload Speed award outright with a speed of 37.6 Mbps. LG U+ is second with a score of 33.2 Mbps experienced by our LG U+ users and KT is third with 28.2 Mbps.
While KT users saw a very limited change in their average 5G upload speed (27.1 Mbps vs 28.2 Mbps) since the last report, our users on both other operators saw a significant increase. For both our LG U+ users and our SK telecom users they saw speeds break the 30 Mbps mark, rising from 27.5 Mbps previously for LG U+ and from 29.5 Mbps for our SK telecom users last time.
Opensignal has again analyzed the 5G experience across five regions: Chungcheong, Gangwon, Gyeongsan, Jeolla and Sudogwon.
In most regional contests, the results are so close that two or more operators jointly win the categories. There are a number of noticeable exceptions.
SK telecom wins the 5G Download Speed award outright in Chungeong, Gyeongsan, Jeolla and Sudogwon. It's also the sole winner for 5G Video Experience, 5G Availability and 5G Upload Speed in the region around the capital, Sudogwon. Similarly, it picks up four awards outright in Gyeongsan.
LG U+ wins the 5G Reach award outright in Jeolla — this is the only clear sole win for either KT or LG U+ across the regions.
Select any region or city below to display individual breakdown
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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