“South Korean 5G Operators Fined 33.6 Billion Won for Falsely Advertising Network Speeds”

Sounds familiar? If so, it’s pure coincidence, because it’s not about Poland with the fledgling 5G, but about South Koreaa country considered one of the world leaders in implementation of the new standard.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission announced today that operators SK Telecom, KT Corp i LG U+ have “falsely exaggerated and fraudulently advertised” 5G service speeds on their networks. The office imposed telecoms fines totaling 33.6 billion woni.e. over PLN 106 million.

In particular, the state regulator raised objections advertising download speeds of up to 20Gbps. Although in theory such data transfers in 5G are possible, currently none of the operators in the world there is no network that meets the technical requirements for such speeds. However, they appeared in advertisements of Korean telecoms explicit suggestionsthat customers will be able to use 5G with just the speed do 20 Gb/s. Each of the operators also boasted that its 5G network is the fastest in the countryalthough none had evidence to support such a claim.

So what real speeds did Korean telecoms offer? The Authority noted in a communiqué that while when advertisements for 20 Gbps services were broadcastmaximum speeds achieved in networks ranged from 656 Mb/s to 801 Mb/swhich is 3-4% of the promised performance.

The Korean commission took the matter very seriously. though the penalties imposed are not hightaking into account the huge scale of operations of operators, they do have warning character and are also a signal to customers. This is the first time in Korea that operators have been punished for falsely advertising the network’s capabilities, although according to the office, this kind of disinformation always appears, when there is a generation change mobile technologies.

The whole thing is interesting because the 5G market in South Korea belongs to most developed in the world. 5G is being used there 29.6 million customers mobile networks on a global scale market of 78 million still a small percentage, but that’s what South Korea consistently hits global rankings in download and upload speeds in 5G networks. Customers of local telecoms can use 5G in the largest cities in the band 3,4-3,5 GHzand LG U+ is getting ready to launch the band 28 GHzin which Samsung’s Korean tests managed to achieve speeds of the order of 8 Gbps.

Look: Where in the world is the fastest 5G? Opensignal ranking, March 2022
Look: GlobalData: 5.5 billion people will use 5G in 2027