South Korea plans to invest KRW 1.6 trillion (approx. USD 1.5 billion) through 2020 to build a 5G mobile network. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning has been in talks with the country's three mobile operators as well as technology firms such as Samsung and LG to draw up a plan, Yonhap News Agency writes.

Under the plan, Seoul will first develop key features for the new network, including Ultra-HD and hologram transmission, as well as new social networking services. The ministry is hoping to strengthen ties with US, Chinese and European telecom authorities to establish standards for 5G and avoid excessive patent battles.

The first test run for the 5G network on social networking sites is planned for 2015 and this will be expanded to mobile 3G images and cloud services in 2017 at speeds of 1 Gbps. After another pilot at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, the 5G network will start commercial services in 2020.

The country hopes to gain KRW 331 trillion (USD 310 bln) between 2020 and 2026 from sales of 5G devices.