South Korean telecom operator KT revealed in its earnings statement that the company ended 2019 with a total of 1.42 million 5G subscribers. The telco said that total Capex in 2019 was 3.26 trillion KRW (2.35 billion EUR) and that KRW2.2 trillion (1.59 billion EUR) was attributed to its 5G access network (68% of total […]
South Korean telecom operator KT revealed in its earnings statement that the company ended 2019 with a total of 1.42 million 5G subscribers.
The telco said that total Capex in 2019 was 3.26 trillion KRW (2.35 billion EUR) and that KRW2.2 trillion (1.59 billion EUR) was attributed to its 5G access network (68% of total Capex).
KT’s rival, SK Telecom, announced it ended 2019 with 2.08 million 5G subscribers. The country’s larger operator by subscribers count expects to reach between 6 and 7 million 5G subscribers by the end of 2020. LG U+ reported that it closed last year with a total of 1.16 million 5G subscribers.
The three South Korean operators launched 5G services in April 2019.
In China, the largest state-owned mobile operator by subscribers, China Mobile, published that it signed up 15.4 million “5G Package Customers” by the end of February 2020, excluding IoT subscribers. The company is targeting 70 million 5G subscribers in 2020, and 100 million self-brand and third-party 5G smartphones sells in 2020. The operator said it will launch 5G services in all cities above the prefecture-level in 2020, investing 20 billion CNY (2.6 billion EUR). This means that more than 340 cities across the country will open 5G networks.
In early October 2019, the three major mobile operators already registered almost 9 million 5G users before the official launch. China Mobile announced 5.32 million subscribers, China Telecom hit 1.76 million subs, and China Unicom was right in line with 1.75 million users. Each player activated their network in 50 cities at launch, installing over 50,000 5G base stations across the country by the end of 2019.
