Faster Than a Speeding Bullet (Train): S. Korea Will Invest $1.5 Billion in 5G

Don’t you hate it when you settle in at home to watch a movie and find the download moving at glacial speed?

The antidote may come from South Korea, where government officials just announced a next-generation 5G wireless service that allows one-second downloads of full-length films, reports Business Insider.

The rocket-fast technology, which government officials say is 1,000 times faster than current 4G services, comes with a 1.6 trillion won ($1.5 billion) implementation price. Business Insider says the South Korean government released the following statement about the investment:

We helped fuel national growth with 2G services in the 1990s, 3G in the 2000s and 4G around 2010. Now it is time to take pre-emptive action to develop 5G. Countries in Europe, China and the U.S. are making aggressive efforts to develop 5G technology … and we believe there will be fierce competition in this market in a few years.

But don’t look for the new service just yet. The Economic Times reports that the 5G service will roll out in 2017. Full commercial service won’t be available until about three years after that.

And while you may be most interested in the service to speed at-home movie downloads, the South Koreans see those riding bullet trains as their target market. Reports Economic Times, “Officials said the new service would also mean people on bullet trains running faster than 500 kilometers (310 miles) an hour would even be able to access the Internet, compared with 300 kph currently.”