South Korea Launches World's First 5G Network
At 11 p.m. on April 3, South Korea launched the world's first 5G high-speed network.
The network had been expected to launch on April 5, but around 5 p.m. on April 3, the South Korean government learned that Verizon was secretly planning to launch its own 5G service in the US later that day. So South Korea planned its own surprise launch later that night, beating Verizon by just 55 minutes.
Except for a small group of celebrities, however, nobody was able to use the 5G network until April 5, when Samsung's Galaxy S10 5G – the world's first 5G phone – went on sale.
Verizon says it still had the first 5G network because South Korea's network was only available to a few people on April 3.
However, Verizon only launched its service in parts of Chicago and Minneapolis, and it can only be used by adding an extra modem to the Motorola Moto Z3 phone. South Korea has 5G networks all around Seoul and several other major cities, though it's not yet available in rural areas. Experts say it will probably be two or three years before South Korea has 5G everywhere.
5G is at least 10 times faster than 4G LTE, with South Korea's fastest network offering 2.7 gigabytes per second. Unlimited 5G data plans start at about $70 in South Korea, while Verizon's plans cost between $85 and $105 per month.
LG Electronics will release its own 5G phone on April 19. And while the iPhone is popular in South Korea, Apple isn't expected to release a 5G iPhone until 2020 or later.
