The South Korean Science Ministry has confirmed it will revoke the license of mobile carrier Stage X.
The Ministry said that Stage X, which was launched earlier this year, has failed to meet the legal requirements to run its business.
It was unveiled by a consortium led by Kakao Corp. and other unnamed partners.
According to The Korea Herald, Stage X failed to make a payment of KRW205 billion ($149m) that was due last month.
The telco had secured 28GHz of spectrum to operate 5G services in February, and committed to invest KRW430 billion ($311.6m).
It saw off competition for the spectrum from other hopefuls Sejong Telecom and My Mobile Consortium.
"We concluded the capital raising claimed by Stage X could not be trusted and that it would be difficult to properly carry out the business if the capital specified in the allocation application was not properly secured," said Second Vice Science Minister Kang Do-hyun.
"Considering expected future concerns of partners such as equipment manufacturers, investors, and users, we concluded that cancellation of the selection of companies subject to allocation was inevitable."
South Korea's mobile market is currently served by SK Telecom, LG U+, and KT Corporation. Stage X was set to launch mobile services from next year.
All three telcos previously lost their access to the 28 GHz license, with SK Telekom losing it last May, while KT Corporation and LG U+ had theirs canceled in 2022.
