The South Korean government said it will cancel the spectrum licenses in the 28 GHz band that was allocated to local operators for 5G deployments, citing the lack of investment and missed rollout requirements.
Once this measure is fully implemented by the government, local operators KT and LG Uplus will lose the right to use the 28 GHz frequencies they had won in a spectrum auction in 2018. Meanwhile, South Korea’s largest mobile operator, SK Telecom, will have its use time of the 28 GHz spectrum reduced by six months. It will also lose the right to use the spectrum completely if it fails to deploy 15,000 radio stations that use the spectrum by the end of May 2023.
