Category: Technology Author : Steven Hodson Posted: February 1, 2009
Tags : broadband
Om Malik over at GigaOM has a report on the newest move by Korea’s Communication Commission is planning on a countrywide broadband upgrade. The country already has one of the best broadband penetration and speed in the world and they plan that by 2012 it will be getting a whole lot better. How much better you ask – well try a 10 fold increase in speed.
This means that people living in Korea will see their broadband speeds hit the 1 Gbps range as well as an increased penetration IPTV from the current 87% to 96%. During this time the government is expecting the upgrade will create some 120,000 jobs and will cost around the $24.6 Billion mark.
I’m sorry but as cool as that might be for Korea it pisses me off that here in both Canada and the US we have the broadband providers nitpicking over what even classifies as broadband. Instead of trying to take the two countries to the forefront of the Internet world they want to keep us out in the boonies while they keep hiking the rates for what we do have.
From the JoongAng Daily story about the announcement
“This plan will bring innovation to the public’s digital lives,” KCC said in the release. Digital TV coverage will also rise to 96 percent in 2012 from the current 87 percent, according to the plan. The KCC added that the project will help Korea cement its position as one of the world’s leading IT countries. More than 94 percent of Korean households already have access to high-speed Internet services, and Korea has the highest number of subscribers to broadband services in the world as of last year, according to OECD data.
This makes it obvious how much of a joke our own infrastructure is when North American broadband providers think that 5 Mbps and 10 Mbps is something to brag about. It’s too bad we couldn’t get a serious about our future as other countries seem to be getting.
Feb 1, 2009
I see people talking about Korea and Luxembourg and their penetration of broadband. Now consider this. South Korea's total area is about 38,000 square miles. Luxembourg's total area is less than 1,000 square miles. Now compare those numbers to the area of the U.S. which is about 3.8 million square miles. So the cost to deploy a network that fast across North America would be exponentially more expensive and more logistically difficult than in small countries like South Korea and Luxembourg. The bottom line is that people need to be willing to pay for the cost of the upgraded service. I don't think it's fair to place the cost of such nationwide upgrades like that on the backs of taxpayers, many of whom have very modest needs with respect to internet data usage.
Feb 1, 2009
South Korea is the world's most connected “information society” in the world. If USA and Canada really want to match them, they should try to plan ahead of the times. Otherwise, this game of chasing the Korean innovation will not work at all. Lets see what the Obama team will do.
Feb 1, 2009
The U.S is the 3rd largest country in the world. Canada is the 2nd. Korea is the size of an average size state in the U.S. It's a lot easier for them to upgrade their infrastructure and have such great speeds. Do the math…
Feb 1, 2009
I think the Korean people are really lucky. Hope this would create a enormous employment opportunity in this field. They can achieve 100% coverage easily since they have already achieved 94% of household with high internet speeds. Korea leads the world in Broadband service.
Feb 1, 2009
see people talking about Korea and Luxembourg and their penetration of broadband. Now consider this. South Korea's total area is about 38,000 square miles. Luxembourg's total area is less than 1,000 square miles. Now compare those numbers to the area of the U.S. which is about 3.8 million square miles. Nike AIR Force So the cost to deploy a network that fast across North America would be exponentially more expensive and more logistically difficult than in small countries like South Korea and Luxembourg. The bottom line is that people need to be willing to pay for the cost of the upgraded service. I don't think it's fair to place the cost of such nationwide upgrades like that on the backs of taxpayers, many of whom have very modest needs with respect to internet data usage.
Jul 27, 2009
very very useful information for all internet users i am using the Broadband connection in my house my connection Airtel India.I usually check the Speed in the site ip-details.com/internet-speed-.