In September, LTE Subscriber Growth Rate Surpasses 5G
Industry: "No Strong Motivation to Switch to 5G"
The number of 5th generation mobile communication (5G) subscribers has stagnated, failing to reach 1%. This is the first time since the commercialization of 5G in April 2019 that the monthly 5G subscriber growth rate has fallen below 1%.
According to the wireless communication service subscription statistics from the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 12th, as of the end of September, the number of 5G subscribers was 31,795,552, an increase of 0.91% compared to the end of August.
The growth rate of 5G subscribers has shown a clear slowdown since March. Until August, it maintained a rate in the low to mid 1% range, but in September, all three major telecom companies fell below 1%.
By telecom company, SK Telecom had 15,146,243 subscribers, up 0.91% from the end of August; KT had 9,514,050 subscribers, up 0.85%; and LG Uplus had 6,819,310 subscribers, up 0.94%. The number of 5G subscribers for MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) also increased by only 2.23% compared to the end of August, falling short of even a quarter of the August growth rate (9.96%).
As a result, in September, the 5G subscriber growth rate was even lower than that of LTE subscribers. The number of LTE subscribers was 48,590,029 in September, a 2.9% increase from the end of August.
The telecommunications industry views the slowdown in 5G subscriber growth as natural, given that it has been four and a half years since the launch of 5G services. They believe that there are now few customers left to transition from LTE to 5G.
However, the fact that 5G has been overtaken by the older LTE technology despite most new smartphones being released with 5G capability may also indicate that 5G services and pricing are not attractive enough to surpass LTE. New technologies that can be implemented on 5G, such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), extended reality (XR), and the metaverse, have yet to provide compelling content to users.
Slower-than-expected speeds and expensive fees are also diminishing the appeal of 5G. According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, the minimum 5G plan price among the three telecom companies is in the mid to high 40,000 KRW range. This is a limiting factor for consumers who want low-cost plans, as there are only two to three plans available for small data usage beyond 30GB.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Science and ICT plans to negotiate with the three companies to introduce 5G plans priced in the 30,000 KRW range in the first quarter of next year and to encourage revisions to the terms of service within this year to allow cross-subscription of LTE plans for 5G devices.
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