Korea’s LTE Speed Three Times Faster Than Those in Major Cities around World

A nationwide LTE quality evaluation in 2018 found that Korea's LTE wireless internet speed was three times faster than those in major cities around the world, with SK Telecom providing the fastest service in Korea.

Korea’s LTE average download speed was 150.68 Mbps (133.43 Mbps in 2017) while its average upload speed was 43.93 Mbps (34.04 Mbps in 2017), according to the results of the "2018 Telecom Service Quality Evaluation" released by the Ministry of Science and ICT on Dec. 30.

According to an overseas Internet quality survey conducted by the Korea Telecommunications Operations Association (KTOA) in 2018, LTE average download speeds in major cities were 74.17 Mbps in Toronto, 55.58 Mbps in Frankfurt, 53.89 Mbps in Paris, 42.01 Mbps in Hong Kong and 27.15 Mbps in Las Vegas.

Korea’s LTE average download speed rose 12.9% year on year to 150.68 Mbps in 2018. SK Telecom's download speed hit 195.47 Mbps, well above the average. Those of KT and LG U+ were found below the average as they reached 144.54 Mbps and 112.03 Mbps, respectively.

Wi-Fi speed also improved. The average commercial Wi-Fi download speed stood at 305.88 Mbps, 15.49 percent up from the previous year. The download speed of public Wi-Fi services averaged 354.07Mbps, recording a 23.49% year-on-year increase.

Moreover, six wired Internet service providers showed 484.34 Mbps in download and 486.40 Mbps in upload on average in their 500 Mbps services, and 913.83 Mbps in download and 907.1 Mbps in upload on average in their 1 Gbps services. Call success rates hit 99.89 percent for VoLTE, 99.40 percent for 3G and 97.35 pecent for 2G. A comparison of average LTE download speed stayed at 190.90 Mbps for mobile operators and 188.03 Mbps for mobile virtual network operators.