The Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology (MSIT) of Korea has detailed plans to nearly double the 5G spectrum allocation of mobile operators by the end of 2026 and increase the available frequency band of 2640 MHz.

In April of this year, the South Korean Ministry of Defense launched the so-called 5G + spectrum plan, which aims to make South Korea the world leader in spectrum availability with a target of 5320 MHz.

MSIT did not specify a specific frequency band or release a new frequency band, but industry insiders expect that each operator will allocate another 300MHz in the 3.5GHz band.

South Korea was one of the first countries to auction 5G spectrum. In June 2018, it sold 3.61 trillion won ($ 3.06 billion) by selling 3.5GHz and 28GHz bands. SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus obtained 280 MHz in the 3.5 GHz band and 2400 MHz in the 28 GHz band, respectively.

The data released by the Ministry of Science and Information and Communication of Korea on December 2 shows that as of October this year, the number of 5G subscribers to the three major mobile operators in South Korea reached 3.98 million. Among the three major telecom operators, SK Telecom’s 5G network subscribers were 1.771 million; KT and LGU + were 1.218 million and 1.001 million respectively. The market share of the three operators was 44.4%, 30.4% and 25.1%.

Since South Korea launched 5G commercial services in April this year, the number of network users has continued to increase, and the number of people who go through the network formalities every month is more than 510,000. From April to September, the number of people entering the Internet were 272,000 people, 784,000 people, 1.337 million people, 1.912 million people, 2.795 million people, and 3.466 million people. At the end of October, the number reached 3.982832 million. According to this, this year, 5G subscribers can exceed 5 million.