South Korea Ranks Overwhelming No.1 in OECD 5G Speeds... Rural Areas Outpace Other Countries' Cities

OECD Report: "South Korea Leads 5G in All Regions"
Regional Speed Gap Less Than 10Mbps
South Korea's "Rural 5G Joint Utilization Plan" Introduced

South Korea recorded the fastest 5G mobile download speeds among member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Notably, the average speed in rural areas was faster than the urban areas of every other OECD member country.

A rural scene during rice planting. Photo by Yonhap News

According to the IT industry on July 16, the OECD's report "Closing Broadband Connectivity Divides for All: From Evidence to Practice," released on July 10 (local time), showed that as of the fourth quarter of last year, South Korea's 5G download speeds were 468.11Mbps in urban areas with populations of 50,000 or more, 408.75Mbps in semi-urban (medium-density) areas with populations of 5,000 or more, and 401.32Mbps in other rural areas.

The report stated, "South Korea leads in 5G speeds across all regions, and rural users experienced faster speeds than the urban areas of every other OECD member country." In fact, the OECD average for urban areas was 222.6Mbps, while the speed in rural areas of South Korea was even faster than Denmark, which ranked second among urban areas.

Not only were the speeds high, but the regional gap was also relatively small. According to the report, the speed difference between urban, semi-urban, and rural areas in South Korea for overall mobile downloads, including 5G, was less than 10Mbps, making it the country with the smallest gap among OECD members. Additionally, the average speed in rural areas was 156.1Mbps, which was faster than the urban average of every other OECD country.

South Korea also ranked among the top countries in high-speed wired networks. The report noted, "South Korea, the Netherlands, and Norway have the smallest regional differences in high-speed wired network download speeds, with gaps within 5 percentage points," introducing them as the countries with the smallest regional speed gaps. It further explained, "In South Korea, SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus are jointly building infrastructure based on the Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) approach, sharing base stations to expand 5G service in low-density rural and coastal areas."

In this report, the OECD analyzed internet speed and quality in 38 member countries and 23 partner countries, using data from the UK market research firm Opensignal to compare performance by urban, semi-urban, and rural areas. In terms of 5G usage rate, South Korea recorded a 19.0% share of total mobile usage time connected to 5G, ranking third after the United States (26.7%) and Australia (19.1%).