South Korea’s third MNO will be leaning heavily on Swedish kit vendor for its nascent 5G network, having chosen it for both the RAN and the core.

The new news seems to concern specifically LG U+’s non-standalone 5G using the 3.5 GHz frequency band, for which Ericsson will supply at least some of the RAN kit. Ericsson is only announcing itself a ‘a’ supplier, rather than ‘the’ supplier, so we can assume there are others. It seems the 5G core gig was already known, but Ericsson decided to mention it again anyway.

“We are delighted to have Ericsson as a trusted 5G Core and 5G RAN vendor,” said Daehee Kim, Vice President, Network Strategy at LG U+. “Ericsson’s end-to-end 5G technology leadership is key to ramping-up our nationwide 5G ambitions in Korea. Ericsson will help us to deliver the very best enhanced mobile broadband experiences for our subscribers, as well as opening up innovation and job creation opportunities through the Internet of Things, Industry 4.0 and digitalized society.”

“We’re working in close partnership with LG U+ to strengthen its 5G network in Korea,” said Hakan Cervell, Head of Ericsson Korea. “We look forward to building the partnership to help LG U+ meet its 5G needs as its subscriber base grows across enhanced mobile broadband, IoT, and Industry 4.0. We’re also delighted to now be working with all three communication providers in Korea to use our 5G abilities to keep the country at the forefront of 5G innovation and benefits.”

Huawei seems to be largely frozen out of South Korea, but Samsung is presumably a stronger networking competitor there than anywhere else in the world, so this is still a decent deal win. We don’t know how much of LG U+’s 5G network will be covered by Ericsson, but North East Asia is a key market so it will take whatever’s going.