South Korean consumers will get 5G service starting from $48 a month

5G for consumers is expected to launch late this week in South Korea. The three mobile operators in the market have published their 5G packages, starting from 55,000 won and going up to 130,000 won.

After launching the pilot B2B 5G services simultaneously in December, South Korea annouced it would launch consumer 5G service by the end of March. But there was a minimum delay. When the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G hits the retail market on Friday 05 April, all three mobile operators in the country, SKT, KT, and LG Uplus (LGU+), are expected to switch 5G services on. In addition to fast internet, there will also have a 5G UHD live broadcasting service that KT is going to launch.

In the run-up to it, all three of them have published the price list of their data packages:

Earlier in March, the Ministry of Science and ICT rejected a price proposal from SKT that set the entry price at 70,000 won ($62), deeming it too expensive and “restricting consumers’ choice.” The three operators then agreed to set the starting price according to the Ministry’s expectations at 55,000 won ($48). Park Jung-ho, SKT’s CEO was quoted by the local media outlet The Investor, “there was a request for a pricing plan in the range of 55,000 won (from the government). We are about to wrap up the discussion.”

Despite the equal starting price, there are differences between offers. While a 55,000 won package on KT and SKT will get the consumer 8GB data, the same price on LGU+ will come with 9GB. The most expensive offers on SKT and LGU+ are priced at 120,000 won and 95,000 won respectively, giving users 300GB and 250GB. Any packages from 80,000 won upward on KT will give users unlimited data.

There are also different speed caps. Speed will be capped at 1Mbps if the user chooses the starting package from KT and LGU+ and goes beyond his data limit. Higher package users on KT will have unlimited speed, while speed for users of LGU+’s higher packages will be capped at 5Mbps and 7Mbps if they go beyond their monthly data limit. KT also offers free international data roaming (185 countries outside of South Korea), but the roaming data speed will be capped at 100Kbps on the 80,000 won and 100,000 won packages, and at 3Mbps on the most expensive130,000 won package. SKT has not released details on its data speed cap policies.

However, although the 80,000 won package with unlimited data on KT is cheaper than the current LTE packages offered by the operators, consumer advocacy groups argue that 5G users could end up paying up to 20,000 won ($18) per month more than they do now with LTE unlimited data packages now. This is calculated by including the high price of the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, which is set to be sold at 1.4 million won ($1,231). The LG V50 ThinQ is only going to be able to reach the retailers in Korea after May, company sources told ZDNet. There is no information when or if the 5G smartphones from other suppliers will reach the Korean market.

“Those who spend 30,000 to 40,000 won on telecom bills would not be able to use 5G network services. It is the worst pricing plan in the era of worsening income disparity,” said People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, an activist group, quoted by The Investor.