Over 1 million subscribers have signed up for 5G since South Korean mobile operators launched the services in April 3rd this year. As of today 73 cities in South Korea have 5G available at some level. It took the operators 69 days to reach this landmark, much faster than it took 4G to reach the same number.

According to data from Speedtest Intelligence®, SK Telecom has the fastest download speed on 5G capable devices in South Korea during May 2019 at 165.37 Mbps. LG U+ was second at 159.42 Mbps and KT was third at 130.01 Mbps.This emphasizes the amazing increase in speed compared to the Speedtest data from March, before 5G was commercially available, and SK Telecom showed a speed of 68.93 Mbps, LG U+ was at 48.05 Mbps and KT was 45.65 Mbps.

South Korea currently has the fastest mobile download speed in the world. While Norway previously held the title, South Korea’s download speed of 76.74 Mbps in May 2019 passed it by 13.0%. South Korea’s May 2019 download speed also increased by 79.7% over the previous year.

While the stats are good, South Korea still has a way to go before 5G deployment will be considered perfect.. There are still many areas where the network is not in operation, and the speed average of the network track well behind the maximum capabilities supported by 5G in South Korea.

Even so, Yonhap, a South Korean news agency, suggests that the number of subscribers will reach 4 million by the end of the year, based on the recent growth.