South Korea will reallocate the 3.7GHz to 4GHz spectrum currently used for satellite communications to 5G wireless communications. The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Monday that it was seeing an increase in demand for 5G when at the same time it felt that it should reassess the effectiveness of how the bands from 3.7 GHz to 4 GHz were used for satellite communications.
At the same time, the 6 GHz band will also be opened for use over Wi-Fi, the ministry said.
Before making this decision, the department examined the current use of medium bands – from 3 to 10 GHz – which have experienced an explosion in demand due to the deployment of 5G networks and the increased number of Wi-Fi installations, did he declare. The department added that it would continue to quickly reassign bands to meet demand for 5G despite the limited spectrum resources, in an effort to be efficient.
5 million 5G users in South Korea
At the same time, Sunday, the ministry said it plans to reallocate 310 MHz of the bands currently used for the LTE 2G, 3G and 4G networks – which are close to their expiration date – to the same operators who currently use them. Of the 310MHz, 270MHz will come from the 2.1GHz, 1.8GHz and 800MHz spectrum currently used in LTE 4G networks by LG Uplus, SK Telecom and KT, respectively.
The ministry has also chosen to forgo an auction because LTE 4G is still widely used alongside 5G networks, and subscribers who are currently using 3G and 2G networks need more time to get rid of these services before that they don’t officially end. The decision was made to protect consumers, the ministry said.
In November, the department said it wanted to add up to 2,640 MHz of bandwidth by 2026 to the 2,680 MHz currently allocated for use in 5G networks.
In April, South Korea had accumulated 5 million 5G subscribers after launching the service in the same month of the previous year.
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Source : “ZDNet.com”
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