Page 106 - SAMENA Trends - September 2019

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KT Inks 5G Roaming Deals in Four Countries

South Korean mobile network operator (MNO) KT Corp has
announced that its 5G subscriber base has now surpassed the
one million mark, according to Mobile World Live. With the cellco
said to have revealed that uptake for its fifth-generation services
had officially passed one million on 21 September, the MNO is
also reported to be seeking to expand 5G access via roaming
deals with partners in four countries. It is understood that KT has
inked agreements with China Mobile, Telecom Italia (TIM) in Italy,
Sunrise Communications (Switzerland) and Elisa Corporation
(Finland), although it was noted that initially roaming will only
be available to customers using the Samsung Galaxy S105 5G
handset. Access via other devices is expected to be added in the
future, it said. KT is the second of South Korea’s three MNOs to
reach the million subscriber mark for 5G; as previously reported
by CommsUpdate, market leader SK Telecom SKT confirmed it
had achieved the same feat on 21 August.

UK Mobile Operators Issued Rural Roaming Ultimatum

Not enough has been done to tackle the rural digital divide in to tackling poor mobile coverage in rural areas. They say that if the
the UK, a new report from the Environment, Food and Rural industry doesn’t voluntarily find a comparable or better solution
Affairs Committee this week has concluded. The report argues quickly, they will push Ofcom to enforce rural roaming. The MPs
that relying on competition between mobile network operators say that despite significant improvement in both rural broadband
to tackle not-spots and partial not-spots has not worked. The and mobile coverage in recent years, it has only barely kept up
Committee recommends a rural roaming solution (where calls are with increasing demand. “Poor connectivity continues to hinder
automatically switched to a different provider with a better signal) rural businesses and is preventing people from engaging with
online public services the rest of the country take for granted,”
a statement said. The Committee accepted that the Government
has recognized the importance of connectivity on a par with
utilities and noted that targets had been set with funding made
available. It also acknowledged Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s
pledge to deliver universal full-fiber broadband by 2025.
However, it noted, “Given the continued challenges posed to rural
businesses and communities, the Committee is not confident
that the Government has fully grasped the extent of the problem,
the scale of the challenge, or the wider cost of poor connectivity
for the rural economy.” The report accuses the Government’s
plans of “lacking ambition” in rural areas, saying they are not
“truly universal” and that its minimum speed of 10Mbps will be
obsolete soon after introduction. MPs said they were skeptical
as to whether Johnson’s fiber target will be achieved without
potentially controversial reforms.

106 SEPTEMBER 2019