The 5G mmWave spectrum licenses awarded to South Korea's top three telecom operators were revoked in fourth-quarter 2022, resulting in no 5G mmWave smartphone being launched in South Korea.
While 4G LTE remains the mainstream mobile communication technology in South Korea, the cumulative number of 5G users will likely have exceeded 30 million by the end of April 2023, narrowing the gap against 4G users. A DIGITIMES Research projection indicates that Korea's total 5G users will likely surpass 4G by the end of 2024.
South Korea identifies network industry growth as a key objective of its K-Network 2030 strategy, intending to drive cloud- and software-based network architecture transformation and increase technological independence of material, component, and equipment upstream supply chains.
South Korea's K-Network 2030 strategy aims to strengthen and upgrade the country's network infrastructure while developing energy-efficient and fail-proof systems with upgrading the backbone network being one of the major tasks.
South Korea released the K-Network 2030 strategy in February 2023, aimed at building state-of-the-art communication networks and making South Korea an ICT and Internet superpower, and DIGITIMES has studied the strategy to find out what the country is eyeing to do for the next several years.
Based on DIGITIMES Research's studies on Japan's 5G network rollout and applications across different frequency bands, the deployment of mmWave remains challenging and its population coverage is very limited at slightly above 0%.
India, with nearly 800 million 4G subscribers, began its deployment of the 5G network in the fourth quarter of 2022 with the country's top two telecom operators – Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel (Airtel) – separately announcing plans to achieve full 5G coverage nationwide by the end of 2023 or at the end of first-quarter 2024.
As IC packaging trends toward high density and multiple layers, IC substrates that use Ajinomoto Build-up Film (ABF) as an insulation material (also called ABF substrates) are gaining market attention. Japan was once a major IC substrate provider, but Taiwan has overtaken its market share.
Korea's top three PCB suppliers SEMCO, LG Innotek and Daeduck, after discontinuing their unprofitable PCB products and moving toward high-end IC substrates, have stabilized their PCB revenue and profitability.
Japan-based firms' investments in their home market in 2022 were more robust than in years past and three main factors were the driver for their relocation back to Japan.
With the increasing usage of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and over-reliance on technologies, drivers are more likely to be distracted while behind the wheel, making the adoption of in-cabin monitoring systems (ICMS) rather critical.
