The auction for 5th Generation network frequencies is underway in South Korea this Friday morning.
It is part of South Korea's efforts to become the first country to commercialize 5G.
Our Kan Hyeong-woo looks into the benefits that the 5G wireless system will bring.

After the first intercontinental 5G trial at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in February, South Korea has taken another big step towards commercializing the next generation telecommunication technology by holding a 5G spectrum auction on June 15th with the nation's three mobile carriers - SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus taking part.

South Korea showcased the benefits of 5G technology at the World IT Show 2018 back in May. The technology will allow greater connectivity between devices, a more reliable connection and the ability to send far more data than before.

5G has a maximum download speed of 20 Gigabits per second... which is about 40 times faster than the current LTE services. Downloading a 15-Gigabyte high definition video takes 4 minutes on the current network. 5G can shorten the download time to 6 seconds.

5G is a key technology for the fourth industrial revolution. It is vital for the expansion of virtual and augmented reality technology and will also lead to increased growth of The Internet of Things or "smart" devices as it can provide a secure reliable connection and prevent delays in data transmission. This will likely solve the problem of autonomous vehicles having unstable connections.

The three mobile carriers taking part in the 5G spectrum auction aim to commercialize 5G services by March 2019... which would make South Korea the first country to do so.

Kan Hyeong-woo, Arirang News