South Korea to invest 25.7 trillion won in 5G for next 3 years
Yearly investment is less than in 2019
South Korean telcos will invest between 24.5 trillion won to 25.7 trillion won in 5G networks by 2022, the companies said.
SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus made the announcement together with the Ministry of Science and ICT on Wednesday.
However, the figure amounts to an annual CAPEX of 8.2 trillion won to 8.6 trillion won. This is far less than the amount they spend in 2019 __ which was 9.5 trillion won, which includes CAPEX from SK Telecom subsidiary SK Broadband.
The ministry talked up the investment plan, calling it part of the country’s “Digital New Deal”.
It also said the investment will allow 5G connections to be available nationwide by 2022.
The telcos will focus on installing base stations at six major cities including Seoul first, they said. Around 2,000 crowded facilities, subways lines 2 and 9 as well as 32 highways will be the focuses this year, the companies said.
Next year, this will be expanded to 85 cities nationwide, they added.