Monthly data usage of 5G smartphone users hits record high in Sept.

All Headlines 10:05 November 03, 2019

SEOUL, Nov. 3 (Yonhap) -- The monthly data usage by users of smartphones running on fifth-generation (5G) networks reached a record high in September, data showed Sunday amid the growing demand for mobile content.

The combined amount of data used by South Korean users of 5G mobile devices reached 87,928 terabytes (TB), according to the data released by the Ministry of Science and ICT.

As the number of users subscribing to 5G network services came to 3.46 million in the month, the figure translates to 25.97 gigabytes (GB) per user.

The size of a two-hour high-definition movie file is around 2 GB, which indicates the amount of data used per user is enough to download 13 movies.

The amount of data used per user through 5G networks came to 18.26 GB in May and gradually increased to 24.08 GB in July and 24.64 GB in August, the data also showed.

In contrast, that of the long-term evolution (LTE) network remained steady at 8.31 GB in September, slightly down from 8.66 GB posted in August.

"The increase in the monthly data usage by 5G subscribers came amid the rising demand for high-resolution videos and gaming content," an industry watcher said. "More users are enjoying augmented-reality and virtual-reality content as well."

Asia's fourth-largest economy was the first country in the world to launch full-fledged 5G services on April 3.