Three Major Telecoms to Provide Subway Wi-Fi 10 Times Faster Starting Year-End

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus will provide subway Wi-Fi services using the 5th generation (5G) mobile communication 28 GHz band from the end of the year on Seoul metropolitan subway lines 2 and 5 to 8.

Cho Kyung-sik, the 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), visited Hangangjin Station on Seoul Subway Line 6 at 12:30 a.m. on the 16th, where the 5G 28 GHz base station construction work is underway, to inspect safety measures and encourage on-site workers. Representatives from the three telecom companies, Samsung Electronics, and Seoul Metro attended the visit.

The three telecom companies successfully completed a demonstration to improve subway Wi-Fi performance using 5G 28 GHz on the Seongsu branch of Subway Line 2 last year and are currently expanding the demonstration results to the main lines of the Seoul subway. The three companies plan to complete the installation of 5G 28 GHz base station equipment on the relevant lines by April.

After completing the base station construction in the second half of the year, the three telecom companies will install 5G 28 GHz signal reception devices (CPE) in train driver’s cabins and Wi-Fi 6E routers (AP) inside train cars. The Wi-Fi 6E APs are specially developed for subway use and include vibration prevention features to provide stable quality even in the shaking subway environment. The three telecom companies plan to develop integrated APs that can be used together by all.

As a result of the demonstration of 28 GHz band 5G-based subway Wi-Fi on the Seongsu branch by MSIT and the three telecom companies, the average speed reached 700 Mbps, about 10 times faster than the existing subway Wi-Fi speed of 71.05 Mbps. The maximum speed was approximately 1.2 Gbps, and stable sections maintained speeds of 800 to 900 Mbps.

Vice Minister Cho Kyung-sik said, "We will support the rapid and safe deployment of 5G 28 GHz so that many citizens can enjoy high-quality communication services."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.