South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) has announced the commercialisation of the first phase of shared access to 5G networks belonging to the nation’s mobile network operators (MNOs) in rural areas.
As previously reported by CommsUpdate, back in April 2021 cellcos SKT, KT and LG Uplus inked a deal under which they would allow shared access to their respective 5G networks in remote coastal and farm towns, with a view to accelerating the rollout of the mobile broadband technology. At that date the MSIT confirmed the signing of an agreement between the MNOs under which subscribers in 131 remote locations across the country would be able to connect to 5G networks, regardless of the carrier to which they subscribe.
Now in a press release regarding the first phase of commercialisation the MSIT noted that while it had initially envisaged the initial phase taking place ‘at the end of 2022’, it ultimately sought to finish inspecting areas where work had already been completed with a view to enabling access earlier than planned. Accordingly, the first phase of commercialisation has now been split into two stages, this first taking place this month, with a second scheduled for December 2022.
As per the information published by the MSIT, having completed test operations and infrastructure inspections in areas where network construction had been completed as of June 2022, it notes that the first phase of commercialisation has been carried out in a total of 149 eups and myeons (administrative divisions) across 22 cities and counties.