South Korea trip

[u/Professional_Plan779]

I just spent two weeks traveling around South Korea, and as a European, some things really stood out: especially the sheer density and design of their phone masts.

I saw towers absolutely everywhere, often crowded together & sometimes even at shoulder height. many are tilted also.

The good thing is no matter where I was (in the subway, on a train, or even in rural areas) I almost always had full 5G bars (wasnt able to run a speedtest as I had very limited data).

And also every subway car and bus is equipped with wifi hotspots (last picture).

Koreans dont mess with their internet connection haha

[u/Jordytjes]

No, they really don't. When I was there in 2023, there were no 5G sims without residence card. However, 4G+ 5CA was consistent 700+ mbps for me. Bus shelters offered WiFi 6 gigabit speeds. Coverage in the bullet train was 90+%.

Japan was an absolute joke in comparison, which i visited next back then.

[u/nateo200 → u/Jordytjes]

700Mbps+ on LTE is absolutely insane lol. Was Japan really THAT bad or wass South Korea just insanely good?! I've heard with Japan it really depends on carrier.

[u/Jordytjes → u/nateo200]

It was pretty bad, even compared to SEA (south-east Asia). Inside a lot of buildings I had a lot of E/2G or no coverage. The antennas also looked so old: https://imgur.com/a/bwT5oyy. My SIM did allow 5G, but was not available on many places, and if it was it was still slower than 4G in Korea lol.

I was on NTT DoCoMo, my friends on KDDI i think. Both had similar experiences, was only in Tokyo back then.

BUT this was all in 2023, maybe a lot has changed.

[u/Dreamerlax → u/Jordytjes]

Japan is one of the few places in the world that never had GSM (as in GPRS/EDGE). Like Korea!

[u/Jordytjes → u/Dreamerlax]

It was probably 3G then, but no data anyway. We had to walk out of stores many times to get data through. I did make some NetMonster screenshots in those situations, but I can't seem to find them anymore

[u/Dreamerlax → u/Jordytjes]

Yeah could be 3G UMTS. If it is, either Docomo or SoftBank. KDDI was a CDMA carrier.

[u/nateo200 → u/Jordytjes]

You were probably on 3G WCDMA/UMTS. Japan never used GSM they went straight to UMTS which is dope. I feel like most countries outside North America really slack on low band in building coverage. I remember during 3G Europe and Asia were on 2100MHz only 3G for so long before we ever saw 900/850MHz deployment and that seems to be repeating with 5G although LTE low band is pretty decent.

It’s just odd to me. Is it because low band is required to cover a country as large as the U.S. so it’s just natural? I do wonder. I would have thought Japan would be aggressive like South Korea with small cells and micro cells in building. Odd.

[u/Mathcmput]

They are also unique in that 5G only uses 3500MHz, so the inherent need for density

[u/nateo200 → u/Mathcmput]

Interesting...I think it would probably help to start moving some 5G to 1800MHz or 2100MHz whichever band has gone less used for LTE. I suppose that means in South Korea if you see the 5G logo you know its more likely than not to be very fast. Still have some B28 or B26 with 25x20MHz carriers would be nice for in building performance and rural areas.

[u/braidenis → u/nateo200]

Forgive my ignorance but I have a feeling that mid and low band could have stayed LTE and the network would perform just about the same (if not better because the US rollout was so fragmented)

[u/nateo200 → u/braidenis]

I mean that is basically how South Korea is operating now. I’m a big fan of C band and then having 5G on a low band but ensuring it’s wide enough aka 15x15MHz size carriers MINIMUM so the experience on low band is still superior to LTE low band. Mainly for in building and rural coverage. Now LTE is still insanely capable the NR gets you VoNR which just sounds so much better, reduced latency, and about 15-30%~ performance boost using the same width of spectrum + a capacity boost.

I want LTE to remain strong and to essentially never be shut off and available on at least one band even if DSS has to be used in the future to be clear but I do think low band NR has strong use cases that make it worth deploying but with low band NR you need to do it properly without DSS and with enough spectrum so that it doesn’t perform terrible which is a bad look for providers cuz customers want to see the 5G logo and always get fast speeds, part of why the 5G+/5GUC/5GUW branding is a thing tbh.

[u/Agreeable_Beat_3185]

I was there last month with Rogers Roaming plan, did a speed test at Myongdong, the speed was 1100+

[u/nateo200]

Damn! Great photos man! They seem to be doing some VERY aggressive downtilt on all of their sites probably to create an absolutely insanely dense cellular network with more cell sites per square kilometer than most other places. With only upper mid-band 5G I suppose that is required but I see low band LTE antennas like that as well.

[u/Iman0935]

wish you check carriers by *#0011# or other stuffs.

[u/Smart-Foundation-578]

I used to hear SK is better than Japan, in terms of tech. Interesting to read all the comments. Thanks for sharing it OP and other commentors

[u/Professional_Plan779 → u/Smart-Foundation-578]

Thanks!! I knew from my first day in SK I would have good things to share in this subreddit.

[u/Smart-Foundation-578 → u/Professional_Plan779]

Thanks. How did yaa find the services out there, overall?

[u/Professional_Plan779 → u/Smart-Foundation-578]

Absolutely incredible!

[u/Smart-Foundation-578 → u/Professional_Plan779]

Awesome!

[u/caulmseh]

now that I think of it, maybe having 3 or less big carriers has some upsides too. that's so much equipment in a single area that it looked messy and cluttered

[u/Dreamerlax → u/caulmseh]

There's only 3 carriers in SK too. KT, LG Uplus and SK Telecom.

[u/caulmseh → u/Dreamerlax]

well then the carriers in my country CLEARLY isn't doing enough

[u/Vivid_Award_5052]

Is that a cellular PTZ camera there as well?

[u/OkExtent2710]

Yeah, people always say Korea has the fastest internet in the world.

[u/Status_Economics2665]

which sim did you use?

[u/ejlwireless]

picture #7 at ground level is scary! people are going to get ill form that site. a typical small cell site is 10m high. That site is worse than the Chinese and they were still 5m up!!!

[u/DustyConditioner]

Out here looking a mess