Korea Strives to be Global Leader in 5G

The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) announced its strategies for 5G mobile communications on January 13. The measures are aimed at becoming the world’s number one country in 5G networks, which are 100 times faster than 4G LTE. 

To hold the top spot, MSIP intends to capture the top spot in the global 5G phone rankings, become the top-ranked standard-essential patent holding country, and represent 20% of the global equipment market by 2020. Under the plan, 57,000 high value-added jobs are going to be generated by 2026. 

To achieve these goals, MSIP created a roadmap for testing pre-5G technology by 2015, providing the 5G service on a trial basis by 2018, and finally commercializing the service by 2020. In addition, it is seeking to nurture 5G mobile communications as a growth industry of Korea’s creative economy, with an investment of 1 trillion in research and development, standardization, and infrastructure over the next 7 years. 

In particular, MSIP is planning to submit a 5G standard to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in partnership with China, Japan, and the EU in order to lead the effort to set a global standard for 5G mobile technology. In fact, the Korean government already reached an agreement with China for joint research and development and service creation in December 2013.