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South Korea currently has the fastest Internet speed in the world. They are also planning to let their users enjoy fifth-generation mobile network or 5G in the future.

On October 29, 2015, SK Telecom, the country's most widely used mobile carrier, declared it would be the world's first operator of a 5G network as it opened the 5G Playground, a facility dedicated to researching the nascent service.

5G is the next significant update to wireless Internet connectivity. SK Telecom is reportedly to have speeds of up to 19.1 gigabits per second, nearly 1,000 times faster than the 25 megabits-per-second in which 4G LTE users in South Korea currently luxuriate. That means, full-length film could be downloaded in a matter of a few seconds.

"SKT will spare no efforts to achieve the world's first commercialisation of the 5G network," CEO Choi Jin-sung said. SK Telecom said it would have a test network running by 2017.

 "So far, we have talked about the 5G only from the perspective of providers including telecom operators, network equipment vendors and device makers. But I believe more important things are the services which can realize scientific concepts that can improve customers' lives, experiences and value."

SK Telecom isn't the only one who is with targeting on 5G. They will have to be in a competition with Verizon Wireless in the US, which will begin testing its fifth-gen network next year and have some degree of commercial availability in 2017. Australia's Telstra also planned 2020 as the year for the commercial launch of its 5G network

.Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg in January said he expected 5G to power a proliferation of Internet of Things gadgets, items that make use of Internet connectivity, due to the network's ability to interact uniquely with different types of devices.

According to a Q3 2015 interactive survey done by Open Signal, South Korea came in fourth in terms of global LTE download speeds, and top in terms of LTE coverage. "Customers on its (South Korean) networks are able to connect to LTE 97 per cent of the time, making 4G almost as pervasive as 2G and 3G networks in that country," it read.