Coinciding with a milestone — successfully signing up 1 million of its own 5G customers — South Korean carrier KT announced (via MobileWorldLive) that it’s expanding its already impressive unlimited 5G service plan, enabling its users to access 5G networks in China, Finland, Italy, and Switzerland. The multi-carrier deal demonstrates the rapidly widening growth of 5G across Asia and Europe, as well as the desire of certain carriers to aggressively appeal to new customers.
Beyond KT’s existing coverage within Korea, which offers users unlimited 5G access starting at $70 per month, the carrier is adding unlimited roaming on China Mobile’s network in China, Elisa’s network in Finland, TIM’s Italian network, and Sunrise’s Swiss network. Each of the carriers is offering early 5G service in a different number of major cities, ranging from Rome, Naples, and Turin in Italy to 262 separate cities in Switzerland.
The only downside is that KT’s 5G roaming is initially limited to Samsung’s Galaxy S10 5G, a particularly popular model, though the carrier will expand roaming to additional devices. Samsung is believed to be responsible for the majority of 5G device sales, having sold over 2 million units worldwide across multiple carriers.
KT is the second Korean carrier to cross the 1 million subscriber threshold, hitting the mark one month after larger rival SK Telecom achieved the same milestone. It holds a 31% market share, placing it ahead of LG Uplus, which said last week that it will offer 5G roaming with China Unicom. In the near future, KT expects to expand 5G roaming to other countries where it already has 3G or 4G roaming arrangements.
