5G is here, but even if you live in one of the few cities in the world where the next-generation mobile network is enabled, you'll likely find that coverage (and speeds) are far from spectacular. Today The good news is that you are not alone. We've already tested the new 5G networks in the US and UK, where speeds and connectivity vary wildly, and now we're making our 5G trip to South Korea. With a Samsung Galaxy S10 5G in hand, we spent three days in the South Korean capital Seoul to test coverage and speeds, and the results are… so predictable. Seoul is considered one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world, but its 5G networks don't seem to be doing any better than those of the United States and the United Kingdom in the past decade. First months of the fifth generation of the mobile network.
Day 1: our first 5G experience of South Korea
We received our Samsung Galaxy S10 5G phone and quickly decoded, connected and set up the phone. By checking the signal, it indicates that it has received a full 5G signal. Speed test time. Our phone came with a Korean Telecom (KT) SIM card installed and this is the only network we had access to during our stay in South Korea. Using Fast.com, we found that speeds varied wildly, hitting about 40 Mbps and peaking (at least for us) at about 360 Mbps. We were sitting in a room of about 50 journalists, everyone came to have the same phone and they did the same tests, so that our device would fight for bandwidth. However, the score at 360 Mbps is at least promising, but when we get back to our hotel, the Galaxy S10 5G only reads LTE in the signal bar. It's time to load up and get ready for more testing in the morning.
(Image credit: Future)
Day 2: Improvements, in places.
Welcome to day two, if you've gotten to this stage...well no praise because you haven't really gone very far. She just keeps reading, okay? With a solid day ahead and plenty of movement between central Seoul and the suburbs, it's the perfect opportunity to test the reach and breadth of KT's 5G coverage while taking a bus. The 5G signal was not available inside our hotel, but on our way out, we had full 5G measurements, and some speed tests later showed that high speeds were available. . We managed to record a mammoth bitrate of 830 Mbps, which is far in excess of any 4G speeds you can get. However, when we started to move to the city center, the 5G signal went to 4G and vice versa several times, and it seemed that we had abandoned the next generation network. As with the rollout in British and American cities, Seoul has 5G at its core, but has not scaled up its activities yet.
Day 3: downloads in a flash
Another day and some additional speed tests get us 5G speeds up to 700 Mbps. What does that mean in terms of usage? Well, WhatsApp and Instagram (less than 40MB) downloaded in a flash, and in these early days of 5G, there are fast downloads and case-insensitive streams without padding. Clear use for technology. It's not like we've been waiting years to download apps on 4G, but these high speeds are just the tip of 5G's capabilities. In the coming years, as networks become more widespread and developers begin to explore the possibilities of a faster, more reliable, and near-zero latency network, we will see the true power of the network. For now, though, unless you live in a 5G coverage area in a major city around the world, it's always interesting to wait for 5G networks to grow even bigger, prices to drop, and more. The phones are available, before switching to 5G. We'd say leave it for at least a year, but if you can stick around for 18-24 months, you may end up in an even better 5G position.