"What’s the Use of Being Number One in the World?" Why 5G Consumers Are Angry [Cha Min-young's PostIT]

5G Victim Class Action Cases Increase
Despite Top Quality Ratings... Satisfaction Only 27%
"Carrier Exaggerated Advertising and Insufficient Efforts in Launching Plans" Criticized

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] #. Despite the glamorous title of South Korea as the 'World No.1 in 5G,' domestic 5G consumers' perceived benefits are relatively lower than those in other countries. Some consumers have even filed a class-action lawsuit, accusing the three major mobile carriers of 'deceptive advertising and exploiting consumers with expensive plans.' Why are domestic consumers particularly angry about 5G, which marked its 2nd anniversary of commercialization last April?

The First Domestic 5G Class-Action Lawsuit

According to the joint litigation platform Angry People, 526 5G victims submitted the first lawsuit petition to the Seoul Central District Court on June 30. The defendants are the CEOs of the three major carriers: Park Jung-ho of SK Telecom, Koo Hyun-mo of KT, and Hwang Hyun-sik of LG Uplus. Recruitment began in March, gathering over 500 plaintiffs in total.

Attorney Kim Jin-wook of the law firm Juwon, representing the plaintiffs, explained the purpose of the lawsuit: "Despite insufficient 5G infrastructure, the carriers opened and sold 5G services, causing many 5G plan consumers to receive incomplete services such as poor communication and call quality." He added, "This constitutes a breach of contract due to intentional or gross negligence under civil law, and we are claiming compensation for property and mental damages based on tort law." Further recruitment for a second round is planned.

Law firm Serim is also conducting a class-action lawsuit aimed at 'relief for 5G inconveniences and damages.' Attorney Lee Hana stated during the recruitment in February, "While there are 800,000 LTE base stations, only 100,000 5G base stations exist, which is grossly insufficient. Although most existing subscribers complain about many inconveniences, the carriers are not listening to their grievances." The first hearing is expected to take place on the 8th of this month.

Ericsson ConsumerLab's report "Five Ways to Better 5G" reveals that in a survey on 5G consumer satisfaction by country, 27% of Korean respondents said they were satisfied.

Domestic consumers' dissatisfaction with 5G services has also been confirmed by market research results. According to Ericsson ConsumerLab's recently published report, 'Five Ways to a Better 5G,' only 27% of Korean 5G users expressed satisfaction. This contrasts sharply with satisfaction levels around 60% in countries like the United States and Switzerland. It is even about 4 percentage points lower than the 31% of Korean consumers who said they were satisfied with the previous 4G (LTE) service.

5G Quality is World No.1, But...

Contrary to consumer reactions, objective indicators show that South Korea's 5G service is among the best in the world. According to mobile network performance analysis firm RootMetrics, as of May, 5G availability in Seoul was recorded at 95.2%. This far surpasses major global cities such as New York, USA (74.1%), Zurich, Switzerland (45.6%), and London, UK (43.7%). All three carriers also exceeded 90% availability individually.

A Global Survey on 5G Availability in Major Cities Conducted by RootMetrics

Regarding 5G median download speeds, LG Uplus recorded 640.7 Mbps, followed by SK Telecom at 622.0 Mbps and KT at 461.2 Mbps. In terms of latency, LG Uplus achieved 25.5 ms, KT 34.5 ms, and SK Telecom 42.0 ms. Low latency means smoother experiences for mobile cloud gaming and other mobile applications. A seamless experience is one of the core aspects of 5G service.

Why Korean 5G Users Are Not Happy

Ericsson LG identified the cause of the discrepancy between technological quality and actual consumer response as Korea's 4G (LTE) service quality and high expectations for 5G. Despite Korea's 5G network equipment and base station quality ranking first or second worldwide based on performance indicators, the results fell short of consumer expectations.

Park Byung-sung, Senior Network Consultant at Ericsson LG, explained, "Korean consumers, accustomed to excellent 4G (LTE) and Wi-Fi, expected 5G to provide far superior and innovative services." He also cited exaggerated 5G performance promotions during the pre-launch period, unsatisfactory indoor 5G coverage, and insufficient efforts to introduce diverse pricing plans as important reasons.

Government to Announce Telecommunications Service Quality Evaluation in August

The government is also aware of these 5G consumer complaints. A representative example is the announcement to strengthen 5G and 4G (LTE) service evaluations in the 2021 telecommunications service quality assessment. The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to expand the evaluation areas from the current 85 major administrative districts in cities to all administrative districts to promote wide and dense coverage.

To reflect the 5G quality perceived by users in daily life, the evaluation targets will be expanded beyond major multi-use facilities to include high-speed rail (KTX, SRT) and subway lines, large apartment complexes as major residential areas, and indoor areas of major university buildings. This is expected to help resolve existing complaints about insufficient indoor coverage.

Additionally, to promote 5G deployment and provide quality information to users, the government plans to announce the mid-year results and comprehensive year-end results twice annually. The mid-year quality evaluation results will be released next month in August, and the year-end results are scheduled for release between December and January of the following year. The three major carriers are also being encouraged to launch mid-tier plans priced around 60,000 to 70,000 KRW. However, it remains to be seen how effective these measures will be.