SK Telecom, LG Uplus Enter Speed, AI Competition for Mobile Experience
In the 'Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 2026' report released on the 7th by British market research firm Opensignal, SK Telecom recorded global wins in 6 out of 8 evaluation categories. LG Uplus secured wins in 3 categories. The two companies are locked in fierce competition, highlighting their distinct strengths in speed and stability versus perceived quality.
SK Telecom's strengths were concentrated in speed and stability. It achieved world No. 1 rankings for download speed at 192.2Mbps and upload speed at 27.2Mbps, respectively, and received the highest score of 971.4 points in network reliability metrics. It also topped the global rankings for Consistent Quality, which indicates service continuity (ratio of time with quality above a certain level), with 90.8%.
LG Uplus was recognized as a winner in areas of perceived quality. It tied for first place with SK Telecom in the Gaming Experience category (90.1 points) and secured an independent first place in Voice App Experience with 84.4 points. In 'Time on 4G/5G,' a metric representing the percentage of time users are connected to LTE or 5G, it achieved 99.8%, earning a global win for network availability.
According to wireless communication service statistics from the Ministry of Science and ICT, as of January this year, LG Uplus had 11.25 million mobile subscribers. Including mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) subscribers using LG Uplus's network, the total number of network users reached 15,835,240, bringing its network share to 27.83%, up from 26.2% last year.
The competition between the two companies is not limited to network quality evaluations. They also clashed during the frequency reallocation process late last year. SK Telecom demanded a discount rate similar to LG Uplus's previous reallocation for the 2.6㎓ band, which received a 27% discount. However, the government did not accept this, applying a uniform discount rate of 14.8%.
The competitive landscape is also expanding into artificial intelligence (AI). SK Telecom and LG Uplus, an affiliate of LG Group, are each developing their own AI foundation models, aiming to enhance the competitiveness of their communication-based services.