Although 5G (5G) mobile communications have been commercially available for more than two weeks, user complaints remain.

Users are criticizing that the 5G coverage is limited by the limit of 5G coverage, and that even if the signal is caught, it will not be able to experience the speed faster than LTE.

When switching from 5G to LTE, I get sick of it, or I get complaints that LTE is slowing down because of 5G.

When will 5G be as stable as current LTE?

According to the industry today, the three mobile telcos expect to take at least one to two years to get reliable 5G quality.

First, to get initial 5G coverage, the number of base stations is absolutely critical, and it takes time to build.

According to a report by the Democratic Party lawmaker of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Information and Communication, the 5G base station installed in the whole country was 85,261 as of the 3rd of this month.

SK Telecom has 38,213, KT has 35,264, and LG U + has 11,784.

Of these, 5,450 base stations installed in Seoul and Seoul metropolitan areas accounted for 54,899 (64.4%) and 18,84 base stations installed in five metropolitan cities (21.2%).

In the case of LTE commercialized in 2011, the total number of base stations in March this year was 376,829 for SK Telecom, 215,010 for KT, and 24,551 for LG U + It is one tenth of the number of LTE base stations.

SK Telecom has announced that it will increase the number of 5G base stations to 70,000 by the end of this year and LG U + to 50,000 in the first half and 80,000 within the year.

KT did not disclose the target number of the target within the year, but it is expected to build the same level as other companies.

The agency said, "If we look at the minimum number of base stations for the nationwide network at 120,000 units, we expect the service area to be expanded nationwide next year."

However, the number of base stations does not determine the network quality.

For example, a base station may be installed too tightly, which can cause poor quality coverage even with a large number of overlapping coverage areas.

Telecom companies explain that network operation capability is important.

Using 5G indoors or underground is another story.

The 5G frequency has characteristics that the radio wave can not reach if the obstacle is strong because of the strong linearity.

In order to use indoors, a separate repeater has to be installed, but now it is almost impossible to use indoors.

"First of all, we will focus on expanding external coverage first," said a company official. "We will continue to secure indoor quality, but it will be difficult for the situation to improve dramatically this year."

However, he added, "From next year, it is likely to be available indoors gradually."

In order to be able to feel the 5G characteristics promoted by mobile telecommunication companies such as 20 times faster than LTE (20Gbps) and ultra low delay, it is necessary to construct base station of 28GHz frequency band.

The carriers have not yet announced plans for this.

The 28 GHz band can handle large volumes of traffic as fast as it is wide.

The 28GHz band is more linear than the 3.5GHz band currently used for the 5G nationwide network, and requires a more compact base station installation due to its short reach.

(Photo: Yonhap News)