On the 28th of last December, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) announced the results of '2016 communication service quality evaluation' mainly in two categories: Wireless Internet (LTE, 3G, WiBro, WiFi (Telco, Public)) and Wired Internet (Giga and high-speed divisions).
■ Wireless Internet Service
LTE service, which includes '3Band LTE-A', 'Wideband LTE-A', and 'Wideband LTE', was found to have average data rates of 120.09 Mbps (in DL) and 41.93 Mbps (in UL). The DL rate remained almost the same compared to 117.51 Mbps last year, but the UL rate was improved by 1.56 times to 26.84 Mbps. LTE transmission success rates were 99.62% (in DL) and 99.28% (in UL).
For 3G service, LG U+ EV-DO Rel.A service was evaluated as well. The evaluation revealed that 3G, leveraging WCDMA approach, will have the maximum date rates of 14.4 Mbps (in DL) and 5.7 Mbps (in UL) while EV-DO Rel.A will support the maximum rates of 3.1 Mbps (in DL) and 1.8 Mbps (in UL). The average data rates of 3G were evaluated at 5.59 Mbps (in DL) and 1.97 Mbps (in UL), with no noticable change from the rates last year.
Wibro's rates went up to 9.19 Mbps (in DL) and 5.88 Mbps (in DL), increasing by 1.6 times and 2.5 times, respectively. WiFi (Telcos) also recorded speed improvement of 1.6 times and 1.7 times with the rates of 144.73 Mbps (in DL) and 141.47 Mbps (in UL).
• Average data rates (Mbps)
• Average transmission success rates (%)
■ Wired Internet Service
Giga Internet (1 Gbps-class) showed the average data rates of 895.70 Mbps (in DL) and 916.08 Mbps (in UL) when checking the rates of data that travel just between user device and a measurement server located within the operators' own networks. The average data rates of high-speed Internet (100 Mbps-class) were evaluated at 90.6 Mbps (in DL) and 70.4 Mbps (in UL) when checking the rates of data that travel across the entire network between a user device and a portal server located outside the operator's networks (i.e. while a large-volume email is uploaded/downloaded at the user device). The rates remained similar to the rates last year.
• Average data rates (Mbps)
It should be a must for any operator to release service quality data, but most do not. Furthermore average LTE speeds should be normalized (effective average data speed) to provide allowance for data transmission succes rates.