South Korea Leads the 5G Race

South Korea is leading the world in the 5G race. The country chose to launch today amid speculations that US mobile carrier Verizon would be the first to start its 5G services. South Korea's launch came two hours earlier, thus came out as first.

Irene Kim, SK Telecom spokesman said the company decided to go ahead with the 5G launch early as they had networks and customers ready. In an official statement, SK Telecom announced that it had activated 5G services for six celebrities representing Korea as of 11pm April 3, 2019. The celebrities included two members of the K-pop band EXO and Olympic ice-skating hero Kim Yuna were the world's first 5G smartphone subscribers.

Meanwhile in the United States, Verizon customers with unlimited data plans in parts of Minneapolis and Chicago can get speeds of up to one gigabit per second on a limited number of phones for an extra US$10 a month. This makes Verizon the first wireless carrier in the US ti flip the switch on speedy, smartphone-ready 5G service in select urban areas.

South Korea, the US, China and Japan had been racing to market 5G and to bring about breakthroughs in fields such as smart cities and autonomous cars.