Though South Korea’s government expected its three cellular carriers to be the world’s first to offer commercial 5G services with smartphones based on the 3GPP’s official 5G standard, Verizon today launched its mobile 5G network ahead of schedule — a win for the U.S. company as it sought to establish further global 5G bragging rights.
“Verizon customers will be the first in the world to have the power of 5G in their hands,” said Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg. “This is the latest in our string of 5G firsts. Verizon launched the first commercial broadband 5G service last October, Verizon 5G Home, and now we’re lighting up our 5G Ultra Wideband network in Chicago and Minneapolis, providing the world’s first commercial 5G mobile service with a 5G-enabled smartphone.”
Verizon originally scheduled the launch of its mobile 5G network for April 11 with plans to offer Motorola’s Moto Z3 and 5G Moto Mod as the first commercial smartphone. The launch covers parts of only two U.S. cities — Chicago and Minneapolis — but will enable customers to use unlimited 5G data in those cities, falling back to 4G or sub-4G speeds outside covered areas.
South Korea has twice attempted to establish bragging rights as the world’s first country with commercial 5G networks. Last December, the country launched what it said was commercial 5G service, though its carriers had no 5G smartphones or consumer service plans to sell. This week, after 5G smartphone and plan approval delays, the country corralled its carriers and Samsung to launch actual 5G service plans and phones for customers — starting Friday, April 5.
Sensing opportunity, Verizon said today that it moved up the launch by a week, giving its customers “first time ever” access to “a commercial 5G network with the world’s first commercially available 5G-enabled smartphone.” Verizon says customers “should expect typical download speeds of 450 Mbps, with peak speeds of nearly 1 Gbps, and latency less than 30 milliseconds,” with network advancements coming throughout the year.
Whether Verizon, AT&T, or South Korea’s carriers “won” this particular 5G race largely comes down to semantics. AT&T launched a mobile 5G network with a hotspot last December, but still isn’t offering either a smartphone or wide commercial service. Verizon launched its pre-standards 5G Home service in four cities last October before today’s 5G Ultra Wideband Network launch in two different cities. On Friday, South Korean carriers are promising 5G coverage in upwards of 80 towns and cities, using the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G — a phone that doesn’t require a 5G accessory for service.
As of today, the 5G Moto Mod is available as a $200 accessory to the $480 Moto Z3, making the total cost of the 5G-capable smartphone $680 — substantially lower than South Korea’s $1,200 entry price tag for the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, and the $1,050 price tag for LG’s V50 ThinQ with 5G. U.S. pricing hasn’t been announced for the Korean phones, but the S10 5G is expected to launch soon on Verizon’s network.
For now, the Moto Z3 is Verizon’s only 5G option, and the carrier is currently offering it for only $10 per month over 24 months if purchased with a new line, or with an online upgrade. The carrier has promised to offer 5G in 30 U.S. citiesthis year, and has unlimited 5G plans ranging from $85 to $105. All of the plans have unlimited 5G, but differ in how much 4G/LTE and tethering data users get before they’re subject to “data de-prioritization.”
With only two days remaining before South Korea’s government-coordinated launch of commercial 5G services, top carrier SK Telecom today announced a series of aggressive last-minute promotions to win early adopters for its next-generation network. Following smaller rival Korea Telecom’s unexpected revelation of unlimited 5G service plans yesterday, SK Telecom said that it is spiffing up its previously reported limited data service plans with freebies and is already planning to revise its prices based on early usage data.
SK Telecom’s free offerings are designed to spotlight its “5GX” network’s ability to deliver higher-quality and lower-latency wireless services than were previously imaginable. To that end, the carrier said its video service, Oksusu, has added a 5GX section with three types of 5G-optimized content: VR, UHD, and 5G Max.
Through the end of June 2019, the company will let 5GX users consume Oksusu’s VR experiences and 4K UHD videos without depleting their data caps and will provide 5GB of free data for users of mobile and VR games — notably including Niantic’s Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. The 5G Max video mode will allow VR headset users to watch 4K movies, documentaries, and extreme sports on a virtual IMAX-style screen.
Oksusu is also offering 12K ultra-widescreen sports broadcasts — 3 times the width of 4K UHD — with the promise of getting live sporting events 15 seconds earlier than other services. A new 5GX social VR service is designed to let multiple people watch baseball games together in a VR environment, and SK Telecom will bring UHD-quality video and voice calling to the 13 million users of its T Phone service.
The carrier is also offering discounts and extra data to certain early adopters of its 5GX data plans, which were revealed by Yonhap earlier this week.
- 5GX Slim: 8GB of 5G data for 55,000 won ($49), with 1Mbps speeds after the data cap.
- 5GX Standard: 150GB of 5G data for 75,000 won ($66), with 5Mbps speeds after the data cap.
- 5GX Prime: 200GB of 5G data for 95,000 won ($84).
- 5GX Platinum: 300GB of 5G data for 125,000 won ($110).
SK Telecom now says that customers who sign up for Prime or Platinum plans before the end of June 2019 will receive unlimited 5G data through the end of December 2019. It also noted that customers on certain contracts can receive 25% discounts on the above prices.
While SK Telecom is touting the strength of its 5G offerings, noting that it has the widest 5G network coverage in the country, superior quantum cryptographic security, and the fastest peak speeds — 2.7Gbps when using hybrid 4G-5G connections — it’s clearly concerned about the potential impact of unlimited and lower-priced 5G plans from rivals.
Following Korea Telecom’s proclamation yesterday that unlimited data will be “essential” to 5G, SK Telecom says it’s planning to revise its 5G data prices “after analyzing the data usage patterns of subscribers of unlimited plans.” That’s an unusual statement for any business to make just ahead of selling something new, but it reflects continued global debates over how to properly offer and price potentially game-changing 5G technologies.
Carriers around the world are closely watching both the pricing and performance of early U.S. and South Korean 5G data plans, as similar offerings are currently being contemplated in dozens of countries. U.S. carriers Verizonand AT&T have split on whether to offer unlimited or limited cap mobile 5G services
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