The South Korean government has announced plans to hold an auction for 3.5-GHz and 28-GHz 5G spectrum on June 15.
The government has also decided to go with its first proposed option of distributing the spectrum evenly among the nation's three operators - SK Telecom, KT and LG U+ - rather than allocating the largest portion of spectrum to the highest bidder, Yonhap News reported.
Likewise, the government plans to limit bid amounts to stop the auction from being overly competitive and burdening the winners with high spectrum costs.
With the move, the ICT ministry hopes to set the stage for the commercialization of 5G technology in South Korea.
South Korean operators are expected to be among the earliest adopters of 5G technology. Currently KT has announced plans to launch commercial 5G services in March, and is expected to be the first South Korean operator to go live with the technology. But both KT and LG U+ have significant 5G rollout plans of their own. The operators already trialed 5G during the recent PyeongChang Winter Olympics.