South Korea's ICT minister has called on the nation's operators to accelerate the adoption of 5G technology.
The Ministry of Science and ICT has made plans with operators SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus to commence commercial 5G operations in early 2019 and deploy 5G infrastructure nationwide by 2020, The Korea Bizwirereported.
ICT minister Yoo Young-min has also requested KT's support for a pilot 5G launch planned for next month's PyeongChang Winter Olympics, with KT committing to prepare to showcase 5G at the event.
Late last year, the ministry announced it has pushed forward the date of its planed 5G spectrum auction by around a year to June 2018, with the aim of enabling commercial 5G deployments in March 2019.
The ministry also detailed plans to increase the supply of wireless spectrum for emerging wireless applications such as autonomous vehicles, smart factories and the IoT.
The ministry is also urging operators to lower the cost of telecoms services in response to feedback from the nation's consumers.