Gov’t to make final decision to cancel 28GHz spectrum next week

[Source : Pixabay]

The South Korean government will soon cancel a spectrum license in the 28GHz band allocated to three local telcos for 5G deployments, citing their failure in rollout requirements.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on Tuesday, a final decision is likely to be made in the last week of December and either KT or LG U+ will lose the right to use the frequency earned in a spectrum auction in 2018. The vacuum may be filled by operators of thrifty phone, which in Korean is called “altteul phone”, but the feasibility is being questioned because required radio stations to be built across the country will cost the license owner huge amounts of money while profitability is believed to be low.

Thrifty phone operators also called Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) lease wireless data spectrum from big mobile carriers to offer cheaper wireless communications services.

The ministry is mulling incentives to allure new operators for the band frequency next year.

But to meet the license requirements as set in 2018, it will take about 600 billion won ($466 million), including about 200 billion won for right ownership (for 5 years) and 400 billion won for installing 15,000 radio stations. The existing three right holders have completed only 10 percent of station installation for the spectrum.

The government expects the MVNO industry to join the auction. The combined sales of the country’s MVNOs exceeded 1 trillion won last year thanks to the popularity of low-cost 4G (LTE) phone services. The number of thrifty phone users remains on the rise, hitting 12.33 million at the end of October.