In last year's government evaluation of telecommunications service quality, 17 of the 52 regions that received failing scores are still in need of improvement. The number of regions that did not improve despite being pointed out includes ▲4 by SK Telecom, ▲6 by KT, and ▲12 by LG Uplus. The improvement rates are ▲81% for SK Telecom (17 out of 21 regions), ▲74% for KT (17 out of 23 regions), and ▲61% for LG Uplus (19 out of 31 regions).
The Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Information Society Agency (NIA) stated on the 28th that they checked the quality improvement of a total of 52 locations identified in last year's telecommunications service quality assessment as having slow transmission speeds or weak signal strength. Of these, 35 locations were improved, but 17 locations were still found to be lacking in quality and connectivity.
The Ministry of Science and ICT and NIA are checking the improvement of the 'poor quality areas' and 'insufficient connectivity facilities' identified in the telecommunications service quality assessment, and they are verifying the implementation of improvements in the following year. An official from the Ministry said regarding this year's investigation, "Despite having more than 100 million annual users, we focused on checking high-speed railways which have been continuously identified as areas of poor quality" and added, "We implemented an enhanced method that simultaneously measures the quality of 5G and LTE to assess the quality of high-speed railways and indoor facilities." This reflects the fact that the majority of 5G services are currently using LTE networks.
Among the 52 locations checked this time, 26 were areas where the transmission speeds of 5G and LTE were slow (poor quality areas), and 26 were locations where 5G signal strength was weak, making stable 5G use difficult (insufficient 5G connectivity facilities). Last year's poor quality areas for 5G and LTE were all confirmed along high-speed railways. Insufficient 5G connectivity facilities were found in high-speed railways and indoor facilities.
The poor quality areas for 5G saw 8 out of 19 locations improved, while the poor quality areas for LTE had 6 out of 7 locations improved. In terms of insufficient 5G connectivity facilities, 21 out of 26 locations were improved. In total, the results of the inspections showed that 8 out of 19 poor quality areas identified for 5G were improved, and 6 out of 7 poor quality areas for LTE were improved.
The specific regions where quality improvements were not achieved include ▲ the 경부 and 경전선 of KTX/SRT (Chungcheong and Gyeongsang regions) and ▲ the Jeolla line of SRT (Jeolla region). The Ministry of Science and ICT stated, "It has been confirmed that frequent incidents of poor quality are occurring in the jointly used areas of 5G along the high-speed railway routes" and mentioned that "In such regions, it is necessary to strive for quality improvements through cooperation between the service provider and the user provider." The 5G jointly used areas refer to places where the three major mobile carriers set up and jointly use communication networks divided among rural areas.
As a result of checking the insufficient 5G connectivity facilities, 19 out of 21 indoor facilities were improved, but 2 locations remained deficient. Among the 5 lines of high-speed railways, 2 lines improved, while 3 lines still showed deficiencies. The improvement rates by service provider were 92% for KT (11 out of 12 facilities), 81% for LG Uplus (13 out of 16 facilities), and 77% for SK Telecom (10 out of 13 facilities).
Lee Do-kyu, the communication policy director at the Ministry of Science and ICT, noted, "We have confirmed several areas where telecommunications service quality has not improved, primarily focusing on high-speed railways and indoor facilities," adding, "In particular, poor quality frequently occurs in the jointly used areas of 5G along high-speed railways, and prompt improvements through cooperation among telecom companies are necessary." He also stated, "We will seek to induce continuous quality improvements and infrastructure investments by telecom companies through re-checks of regions where quality has not improved in this year's second-half telecommunications service quality evaluation."