Advanced Television

SK Telecom passes 1m 5G subs

August 22, 2019

SK Telecom has exceeded the 1 million 5G subscriber mark – and claims to be the first mobile operator in the world to achieve the feat. The milestone was achieved on August 21st and sees the South Korean telco’s 5G subscribers now take up more than 3.5 per cent of its total subscriber base of 28 million.

SK Telecom has attracted the 1 million+ 5G subscribers just 140 days after launching its 5G smartphone on April 3rd, which is twice faster than its LTE uptake rate. After commercializing the LTE service in July 2011, the company hit the 1 million LTE subscriber mark in eight months.

The 5G service is also driving up customers’ data usage. According to SK Telecom’s analysis on 5G subscribers, the average monthly data usage of customers who switched devices from LTE to 5G has increased about 65 per cent from 20.4GB (LTE) to 33.7GB (5G).

The recent launch of Galaxy Note 10 5G is expected to further drive the increase of 5G subscribers. SK Telecom has launched three 5G smartphones – Galaxy S10 5G, V50 ThinQ 5G, Galaxy Note 10 5G – so far and plans to strengthen its 5G device line-up.

Ryu Young-sang, Vice President and Head of MNO Business of SK Telecom, said, “SK Telecom will continuously develop innovative contents and services specially designed and optimised for 5G network to provide differentiated experiences to our 5G subscribers.”

Categories: 5G, Articles, Mobile