Korea on Wednesday launched the world's first super-fast 5G mobile phone service, with connections starting at 11 p.m.

The country's three mobile providers originally planned to start their services on Friday for Samsung's Galaxy S10, but the schedule was brought forward by two days so Korea would not lose the title to U.S. provider Verizon.

The Ministry of Science and ICT summoned representatives from SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus for an urgent meeting on Wednesday. "We got a tipoff that Verizon will start its 5G service on Thursday," a government official said.

"We held a meeting with the three providers and Samsung to readjust the timing in order to become the world's first country to offer commercial 5G services."

Verizon was supposed to start the service in Chicago and Minneapolis next week for Motorola phones but decided to turn on the service a week ahead of schedule.

