The Korea Communications Commission is working on plans that will boost broadband speeds in that country tenfold by the end of 2012. That means Koreans will access 1 Gbps service by 2012. That’s 200 times as fast as your typical 5 Mbps DSL connection sold in the U.S. At present, Koreans can get speeds of up to 100 Mbps from their broadband providers. Availability of such high-speed connections has allowed Korea to emerge as a leader in the MMO and online gaming industries. Even higher broadband speeds are going to unveil many new usage scenarios, which can lead to new company creation. 
In addition to its wired broadband efforts, KCC expects wireless broadband to get a 10x speed bump to 10 Mbps vs. current speeds. KCC is promoting the homegrown WiBro standard as a way to boost speeds. It will re-allocate spectrum in the 800 MHz and 900 MHz bands with preference given to new operators and latecomers to the market. KCC wants to allocate the spectrum next year and hopes that services start in June 2011. IPTV is another area of focus for KCC.
The efforts are part of giving Korean IT infrastructure a boost, according to KCC. The plan is going to cost about $24.6 billion and will create 120,000 jobs. KCC was established because of the convergence of telecom, broadcast and broadband industries.We need our FCC to start thinking along those lines and make some drastic changes to get us to an ultrabroadband future . (Image Courtesy of JoongAng Daily.)
Agree 100%. Current proposals are so lame and short-sighted. They miss the point and the opportunity to do something right. Korea and Japan are good examples of govt. and industry partnership to boost nation’s economy.
It is very sad to see USA lagging behind the likes of Korea and Japan in broadband speeds. lets wait and see what the new administration will offer in this area.
Why is Korea so lucky? Here I am reading Korea will get 1gbps by 2012… and then I’m reading North American internet will be filtered by the government by 2012. This is crazy.
I’m sure I’ll still have 1.5/384 in 2012. Yeah America!
Oh man they’re gonna PWN us without mercy as soon as we enter any Starcraft/Ragnarok server…
South Korea continues to lead the world in this dept. Although the US has a topology that would make a similar roll out here several orders of magnitude more complex, it is completely baffling why even our major cities are incapable of having highly reliable ultra-fast broadband. Of course, I’m a bit prejudiced when it comes to this sort of stuff. If it were up to me, I’d bump that stimulus package up to a cool 2 Trillion with half of it going to broadband and advanced communication technologies 🙂
On a serious note, though… selling internet access is not exactly a winning proposition. It’s a commodity people don’t expect to pay a lot of money for, yet the demand for faster access continues to increase. This is definitely a reason why the government should play a greater role. The private sector simply doesn’t have the incentive to invest in cutting-edge technology.
That’s not really a big deal anymore, in Hong Kong 1Gbps has been around for years for instance.
You can write to FCC at :
http://www.fcc.gov/contacts.html
I wrote to them, my post is at :
http://people20.blogspot.com
The FCC can help provide 100000 jobs and increased US productivity, by following S. Korea
Currently, as an Internet based worker, there is little motivation to stay in the US if Internet speeds are low. Also, having higher internet speeds will spur investment in Internet technologies/applications and in turn create jobs.
Published at :
http://people20.blogspot.com/2009/02/fcc-can-help-provide-100000-jobs-and.html
Wrote:
http://www.fcc.gov/contacts.html
Kevin Kelly wrote a great piece, Better Than Owning. “Very likely, in the near future, I won’t “own” any music, or books, or movies. Instead I will have immediate access to all music, all books, all movies using an always-on service, via a subscription fee or tax. I won’t buy – as in make a decision to own — any individual music or books because I can simply request to see or hear them on demand from the stream of ALL.” http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2009/01/better_than_own.php
Sure, this may be the future but not the near future especially in North America. We need the infrastructure to support the premise. If not, it’s just a dream! Well unless you live in South Korea or Japan. Actually, the UK is also getting in on 100MB connections for 2012.
The other key is truly competitive rates. From what I remember in Japan, they 100mb connection (up and down) for $75. Here’s the story,Japan Optic Fiber Internet, http://www.dannychoo.com/adp/eng/1653/Japan+Optic+Fiber+Internet.html
We are turning into a nation that dreams while others do
The pull through economic affects of deploying last mile optical connectivity is staggering … once installed, it drives more equipment and software sales. It allows for new applications to be developed whereby time and location for most efforts become less important. A real time economy would emerge with higher productivity levels driving GDP expansion. Private investment would flow by having predictable, reliable and open networks on which to build knowledge-based businesses.
But first, we need to put the physical facilities in place through greater competition with the ILEC and Cable Company closed networks — anything else is having the cart before the horse.
Not a dime of government money should go to any carrier whom own fiber facilities that do not lease fiber strands to others thus keeping their networks and routes closed.
How I wish when it will happen in India?
256kbps is still a dream. Service Providers in India are tuning into billion dollar entities, but we do not have that kind of end customer connection.
What hurts most is – monetarily Indians pay almost the same for a 256 kbps connection as in the West. It is around 900 INR (20/22 USD or 25/26 CAD). And Rogers in Canada gives you 10Mbps connection for 30-40 CAD. Time for another Slumdog Broadband Connection or What???
hello?I live in Seoul in Korea.I went about the Internet, and I saw accidentally this article.
Now it is a one telling through translation machines, and my language is delivered well, and I will not know.
And for me to be writing on now 100mbps is felt that is fast do not it.
In and Korean Internet companies competition is harsh.
Therefore, companies give a commodity to customers.
But Korean people think about that kind of work so as to be natural.
I pay 10 dollars to one month, and I am using for 100mbps.
I thought that the whole world was using the fast Internet all.
Rather I was slow in Internet speed of our country, and I thought.
By the way, in the United States average Internet speed uses 5mbps?
I am shocking.
I cannot imagine it to be.
I will accuse Internet company right now if I am used the Internet of 5mbps in my house.
If really American Internet company lets Americans use the Internet of a 5mbps speed, and it gets from money, it is robber this.
The United States is an advanced country of greatest in the world.
By the way, in this way why is the Internet slow?
I am curious about it.
Korea is too small.Therefore, is it for the Internet to be installed quickly?
I wish to have the Internet where all countries are fast.Therefore, I want to chat by real time.
I want to chat quickly with Americans.If so, my English ability seems to be improved in a minute.
My language wishes that delivery works to you through translation machines.
Finally There is a site reading a response of a netizen abroad to Korea.A site is gesomoon.Media.Paran.Com.
If there is time, I try you once visit.It is a funny place.
Finally There is a site reading a response of a netizen abroad to Korea.A site is gesomoon.Media.Paran.Com.
If there is time, I try you once visit.It is a funny place.
I use 100Mbps line and pay 14 dollers per month.
Internet is available for fast and cheap to use, but freely expressing our opinions is the limit.
not to be negative, but what is the benefit of 1 Gb/s vs 100 Mb/s? Sure raw local access speed but how is the experience different? what are the new applications that take advantage of this?
this is overkill and i guess that the korean population could benefit more in many other ways with the same investment.
-s
someone above mentioned the UK getting 10meg, the current connection in the uk is for the greater part under 2meg actually… some cities have cable at 50 meg, some towns have 24 meg, but the most have 2, and lots have half a meg, with many notspots getting no connection at all. Just thought I would put the record straight. BT advertise speeds of ‘up to 8meg’ but not many can get the full amount despite the advertisements.
im sick of the “up to” thing im in the uk im supposed to be on 20mb ive never had that speed and apparently theyre goin to throttle the net service which sucks
Hi I am in the UK and The Government has plans for 2Mb countrywide by 2012. A little lame in comparison to the others. And the “upto” advertisement is also very misleading to the point of unethical.
I did a little test of my line over a 10 day period and the results were atrocious. I am suppose to get upto 20Mb on a line that only has an 8Mb capability so why am I expected to pay for more than I am able to get. Especially when the speedsare more like 0.5Mb.
http://mediamice.net/weblog/index.php/archives/557
I am still laughing at shadowlayers post, :O) we are definitely going to get PWN’d.
Some illusions that US people may have is that even though 100mbps if close to a norm now in korea, that doesn’t mean that it is necessarily incredibly faster. Yeah it’s faster, but not by crazy amount that you’ll think u can download anything in minutes or even seconds. In korea, everyone lives so much more compact than in the us, thus there are much much more people using the same network. I’m a Korean in US right now, and back in Korean, I didn’t use fiber optics internet (100mbps), and instead used VDSL (which is so old school in korea now) and was probably like 20~30mb. Is it any faster than the internet in US? No! cuz of the reason i mentioned
so, 100mbps is not crazy fast at all. just fast
I use a 50mg conection in the UK , USA are 5mg, and my 50 mg connections fast enough, the 1gbps ? senceless money down the drain or what talk about wanting to be noticed for internet speeds
Who knows what technology has for us in the future? We started at 56k and now we’re up to 5/10/20/50/100mbps. Thats 90-1800x faster than 56k.
Korea is a heavily populated country that is the size of Kentucky. Imagine 50 million people living in that size of a land. People live in apartments that go up to 50 stories high and one community might have up to 30 buildings on a site.
1) I don’t know about you but I want 1gbps.
2) Korea/Japan has the fastest internet around the globe.
3) US will never catch up with internet speed because its too big and that means a lot of money replacing cable/fios.
4) I get 50mbs in Seattle, WA through comcast and I pay over $100 a month.. which is ridiculous.
India have 100 mbps internet connection (tata broadband) but have a cap of 10 gb which is insane but when will it get 1 gbps?
@Heleana , I Never see that before , 100 mb but 10 gigabytes cap , totally crazy .
I’m running a 1 GB connection right now, in the good ole USA
You have 1 Gb, not 1 GB. There is a difference…
I wont mind having 1 Gb connection 😉
Rajbir D – LOL HAHAHAHAHAHA, ive never heard anything finer then america being sensored more then KOREA – LOL
Are you familiar with Net Neutrality? Basically this means the internet is for everyone, but companies like At&T are going to block all other sites that they don’t want you to see. For example if there is a blog about how corrupt At&T is, it will be blocked and the only way you will see it, is if you pay At&T 10-15$. You haven’t seen any censoring yet.
@ George that wrote
“That’s not really a big deal anymore, in Hong Kong 1Gbps has been around for years for instance.”
Sorry buddy South Korea has the fastest internet connections world wide. I doubt Hong Kong is getting 1 Gbps. You’re probably talking about LAN speeds. For LAN that is more than possible. Internet is a whole different story.
@ George who said:
“That’s not really a big deal anymore, in Hong Kong 1Gbps has been around for years for instance.”
Sorry buddy South Korea has the fastest internet connection in the world currently. I doubt Hong Kong has a 1Gbps connection. If anything you’re probably talking about LAN speed which is more than likely possible. Internet speed of 1Gbps is a whole other story.
I Live in Finland, just got 100/10MB for 10e/month 😉
damn, im from malaysia. when i go to cyber cafe its speed reach 1gbps, how do they do that while at my house the speed was only 100mbps
Such a shame. Where I live, the highest I can get is 25meg for $123 a month! That’s too pricey for little service speed. How much are the Korean’s paying for their 100meg?
We have similar complaints about available broadband speed here in Canada as well. I’m not sure who is behind the development and distribution of broadband speed in Korea, but I’m guessing there is more push from the Korean government (and assistance) than could ever be imagined here. US and Canadian commissions are regulatory, taxing a product that is almost entirely determined by private enterprise. We talk about freedoms a lot here, but still end up paying a lot more for a lot less than more regemented, yet “nation focused” countries. Hence the embarrassment of living in the best countries in the world, yet receiving second-rate services, such as broadband. Oh, the irony!
I was in Seoul last year. The current internet speeds they have are simply great. Some of my friend’s pay less than $20 a month. 1GBPS would be too good. They’ll be able to watch super-hd videos without streaming.