Lately, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has announced that it will allocate 28GHz and sub-6GHz spectrum in November to promote 5G-related services across the country.
Both telcos and non-telcos will be able to avail the spectrum. The ministry will make 600MHz of the 28GHz band and 100MHz of the 4.7GHz band available.
The 28GHz band will be further segregated into 12 blocks and the 4.7GHz band into 10 blocks correspondingly. The ministry further stated that a 28GHz band would be provided at the one-tenth price of the 4.7GHz spectrum based on the band’s characteristics and current ecosystem encompassing the band.
The ministry said that block’s pricing additionally varies depending on region and whether a company plans to utilize the band in cities or rural areas.
It further said that it expects the allocation will direct to the development of numerous new services in smart factories, smart farms, healthcare, robotics, and high-resolution videos.
Ministry has given the deadline for applying for the spectrum till the end of September. All those who have applied for the spectrum can request for licenses that last ranging two- five years.
The Ministry of Science and ICT stated that it would reduce and ease the review process (earlier it was three months) to now a month. This move is taken so that the companies can be informed about the band they will be receiving in October. Spectrum will then be allotted by the end of November.
So far, South Korea has allotted the 3.5GHz and 28GHz bands to local telcos SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus, with the telcos launching their 5G services back in 2019.
Though 3.5GHz is currently accessible countrywide, 28GHz bands aren’t available yet for consumers despite telcos previously saying they would launch mmWave services in 2020.
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