Thirty percent of Korean companies are in the process of implementing 5G hardware and software, with 10 percent looking to expand 5G use more widely, a report from Nokia says.

Nokia, a global telecommunications equipment maker, said that the 5G-enabled industry will provide about US$8 trillion in value to the global economy by 2030.

Nokia and Bell Labs Consulting have released a report on business readiness for 5G through a survey of 1,628 decision-makers in six industries and eight countries including Korea, the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan and Australia.

The study assesses companies’ readiness for 5G in five stages – passive, discovery, planning, implementation and expansion. It says that 30 percent of Korean companies are in the implementation stage, which means that the process of physically implementing 5G hardware and software has begun or in progress, and the business is either already using 5G, or will start doing so in the next six months.

Another 48 percent are still in the planning stage, which means that the business has agreed to implement 5G or to lay the foundations for doing so in the future, and work is now underway to make this happen.

The study says that 13 percent of the surveyed Korean companies are still in the pre-planning stage.

Nokia's report clearly illustrates the potential of 5G services to lead sustainable economic growth around the world and redefine innovation over the next decade. Forty-seven percent of Korean companies are promoting digital transformation, despite the spread of COVID-19, the report says.

Levels of 5G understanding vary among Korean companies. Currently, only 21 percent of Korean companies are investing in 5G. However, 94 percent said that they plan to invest in 5G within the next 10 years.