Korea’s KT Says It Will Launch 5G by 2019 — Will Verizon Follow?
Korean operator KT is claiming it will launch a commercial 5G network in 2019, one year earlier than its initial plan of 2020 and one year before 5G standards are expected to be fully baked. KT is tightly aligned in its 5G trials and information sharing with U.S. operator Verizon Wireless, which has also said it wants to be aggressive in its 5G deployment.
In a Korea IT News article, Oh Seong-mok, director of KT Network Sector, said that he is certain that standards of the 5G-SIG (special interest group), will become part of the 3GPP’s international standards. He added that after the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, KT is going to commercialize 5G in 2019 based on international standards.
Verizon and KT aren’t alone in their 5G plans. A study by Ericsson on 5G Readiness released today says that globally there are 29 operators that are already involved in some form of 5G initiatives. The survey found that of those, 22 percent are already planning 5G, 34 percent are in 5G development, and 32 percent are conducting an actual trial of 5G technology.
Interestingly, more than half of the operators surveyed also said that they have a clear strategy in place for 5G use cases, meaning that they identified several areas that would greatly benefit from 5G technology. However, far fewer have a clear idea of the business models. More than 90 percent of respondents said the Internet of Things (IoT) will play a role in monetizing 5G, and that third-party collaboration will be essential to making money from 5G.
