[Comprehensive] "City Buses to Run with 5G Wi-Fi"... 30,000 Units Upgraded Starting Next Year

Ministry of Science and ICT to Hold 'Bus Public Wi-Fi 5G Pilot Service Opening Ceremony and Demonstration' on 27th
Transition from Existing LTE to '5G Backhaul'... Quality Improved with Latest 'Wi-Fi 6E'
29,000 City Buses Nationwide to be Gradually Equipped by 2023
Expansion of Public Wi-Fi to 16,000 Locations Including Libraries and Health Centers Next Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] In the future, city buses are expected to offer Wi-Fi services that are more than four times faster than the current speeds. The government plans to accelerate the improvement of public Wi-Fi service quality by gradually converting Wi-Fi on 30,000 city buses nationwide to 5G from next year through 2023. This measure comes in response to the growing importance of universal data access rights for citizens following the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Bus Wi-Fi to be 4 times faster with 5G"... Pilot service to expand nationwide by 2023

On the morning of the 27th, the Ministry of Science and ICT held a 'Bus Public Wi-Fi 5G Pilot Service Launch Ceremony' at the main gate of the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, and conducted a demonstration.

The Ministry explained that by applying '5G backhaul,' the speed was increased to a maximum of 400 Mbps, which is four times faster than the existing Long-Term Evolution (LTE)-based service (up to 100 Mbps). Backhaul is a transmission network that connects the upper backbone network with the peripheral lower network of mobile communication base stations to enhance Wi-Fi speed.

Starting today, the government will implement a pilot service applying 5G backhaul to bus Wi-Fi, improving speeds by more than four times on 100 buses nationwide. The pilot service will run for two months until December 26 and will comprehensively check service stability, communication quality, and user usage patterns.

At the demonstration event attended by Minister Hyesook Lim and Lee Won-wook, Chairman of the National Assembly Science, Technology, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, participants experienced the 5G Wi-Fi service by making video calls inside buses operating after the pilot service declaration and shared their impressions.

Minister Lim said, "The government and telecommunications companies have been working together to build a nationwide 5G network, and the introduction of 5G to city bus Wi-Fi is meaningful," adding, "I hope that citizens will be able to use fast and convenient public Wi-Fi services in the future and that Korea will advance as a digitally inclusive nation where everyone can enjoy ultra-high-speed internet environments without discrimination."

Chairman Lee stated, "Since communication fees are expensive in Korea, there seems to be a high demand for public Wi-Fi," and added, "If 5G public Wi-Fi is introduced to all mobility means such as express buses, intercity buses, and passenger ships in the future, it could play a significant role in bridging regional disparities."

Minister Lim Hye-sook of the Ministry of Science and ICT and members of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee attended the opening ceremony of the public bus Wi-Fi 5G pilot service held at the National Assembly on the 27th and took a commemorative photo. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

Public Wi-Fi usage exceeds commercial by 24%... Importance also rising

On the same day, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced the 'Public Wi-Fi Advancement Plan' to improve the quality of public Wi-Fi services and enhance user experience, including the transition of bus Wi-Fi to 5G backhaul.

The government has been building public Wi-Fi in city buses and public places nationwide to increase citizens' communication accessibility and reduce household communication expenses. Currently, public Wi-Fi provides free data at 57,000 locations nationwide, including 28,000 public places and 29,000 city buses.

However, as citizens' data usage patterns gradually shift toward high-capacity content, the need for faster high-speed services is increasing. In the first half of this year, public Wi-Fi was used more than 24% compared to commercial Wi-Fi, with 4.06 billion connection attempts and 22,042 terabytes (TB) of data usage, despite social distancing measures.

Additionally, the expansion of 5G infrastructure and the release of next-generation communication technology 'Wi-Fi 6E' have matured the technical conditions for high-quality public Wi-Fi, which is another reason the government prepared the public Wi-Fi advancement plan.

Minister Lim Hye-sook of the Ministry of Science and ICT and members of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee attended the opening ceremony of the bus public Wi-Fi 5G pilot service held at the National Assembly on the 27th and took a commemorative photo. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

Latest ‘Wi-Fi 6E’ introduced in public places... “Improved simultaneous connections and speed”

To advance public Wi-Fi, the government will first convert city bus Wi-Fi to 5G. Starting with the pilot service, the Ministry of Science and ICT plans to gradually convert the Wi-Fi on all 29,100 city buses nationwide from the existing LTE-based system to 5G backhaul by 2023, significantly improving the public Wi-Fi experience for citizens. In the first half of this year, the average monthly traffic on bus Wi-Fi was about 57GB, 1.5 times higher than general commercial Wi-Fi (39GB).

Separately from buses, the government will additionally install public Wi-Fi at 16,000 public places nationwide next year, including libraries, health centers, and parks. The newly installed public Wi-Fi will gradually introduce Wi-Fi 6E. Wi-Fi 6E uses an expanded frequency band compared to the currently commercialized Wi-Fi 6, reducing data latency and improving communication quality.

Furthermore, the government plans to apply 5G 28-gigahertz (GHz) wireless backhaul to about 400 densely populated public places such as professional sports stadiums and bus stops, and upgrade wired backhaul to 10 gigabits starting this year to enhance user satisfaction.

Finally, to prevent inconvenience caused by different service names (SSIDs) in various regions, the government will promote phased service improvements through consultations with local governments. The Ministry plans to gradually link access points (APs) separately established by local governments to the 'Public Wi-Fi Integrated Management Center (Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province)' operated by the Ministry of Science and ICT and negotiate to unify the service names scattered by local governments so that users can enjoy seamless nationwide service with a single login.

Lastly, the government is also working on unifying the different public Wi-Fi service names used by local governments to enhance user convenience. Currently, public Wi-Fi is operated separately by local governments, and the service names (SSIDs) vary, causing users to have to log in anew each time they use the service.

The government plans to gradually link APs separately established by local governments to the 'Public Wi-Fi Integrated Management Center (Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province)' operated by the Ministry of Science and ICT and negotiate to unify the service names scattered by local governments so that users can enjoy seamless nationwide service with a single login.

Hong Jin-bae, Director of Information Security and Network Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "Once integrated into the management center, we can know which Wi-Fi is malfunctioning," adding, "We are currently in good talks with eight local governments and will continue to increase participating local governments through active explanatory processes."