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Internet in South Korea

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South Korea has emerged to become the world leader in Internet connectivity and speed. The government had established policies and programs that facilitated a rapid expansion and use of broadband.

National program

South Korea leads in the number of DSL connections per head worldwide. ADSL is standard, but VDSL has started growing quickly. ADSL commonly offers speeds of 2 Mbit/s to 8 Mbit/s, with VDSL accordingly faster. The large proportion of South Korea's population living in apartment blocks helps the spread of DSL, as does a high penetration of consumer electronics in general. Many apartment buildings in built-up metropolitan areas, such as Seoul and Incheon, have speeds of up to 100 Mbit/s. VDSL is commonly found in newer apartments while ADSL is normally found in landed properties where the telephone exchange is far away.

The Internet has a higher status for many Koreans than it does in the West, and the government actively supports this. South Korea's broadband network is the fastest [1] and according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation the most developed in the world.[2] Particularly Seoul, the nation's capital, has been called "the bandwidth capital of the world".[3] In January 2006, it became the first country to achieve over 50% broadband penetration per capita.[4] By 2005, it was the first country to complete the conversion from dial-up to broadband.[5] It also has the cheapest, fastest broadband in the world. Now there are experiments with speeds of 1 Gigabit per second. Additionally, in 2005 96.8% of South Korean mobile phones had Internet access.[6]

Internet speed

According to the State of the Internet report from Akamai for Q4 2011, the average Internet speed in South Korea during the quarter was 17.5 Mbps, with a peak Internet connection speed of 47.9 Mbps.[7]

Wireless broadband

South Korea offers wireless broadband in major cities. Wibro and HSDPA is the most common technology used in South Korea's wireless broadband. Many public restaurants offer free Wi-Fi Internet during business hours.

Internet addiction

It is estimated that South Korea has over 2 million Internet addicts, about 8.5% of the Korean web users.[8] In one incident a couple were convicted after starving their baby to death, due to their desire to spend an average of 10 hours per day playing online games in Internet cafes.[9]

SK Broadband, a major ISP provider in South Korea has started a campaign named "Happy Internet Mentoring" in 2010 for Korean middle school students in order to solve the Internet addiction problem in Korea.[10]

Real name policy

There is a government-level proposal to stamp out anonymity in the South Korean internet environment.[11]

The KCC considers to stop the real name policy.[12]

Criticism

Then CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, made a negative remark on the South Korean internet environment for falling "a little bit behind" due to governmental regulations during a conference with Choi See-Joong, chairman of Korea Communications Commission, and President Lee Myung-bak.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ Whitney, Lance (14 January 2010). "Akamai: World's Net connection speeds rising". CNET News. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
  2. ^ "South Korea's broadband network most developed". People's Daily Online. 5 May 2008. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
  3. ^ Hertz, J.C. (2002). "The Bandwidth Capital of the World". Wired.com. Retrieved 12 October 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  4. ^ Ahonen, Tomi; O'Reilly, Jim (2007). Digital Korea. futuretext. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-9556069-0-8.
  5. ^ Ahonen, page 174.
  6. ^ Ahonen, page 242.
  7. ^ "South Korea retains Internet speed crown with 17.5 Mbps'". Pingdom. 2 May 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  8. ^ Template:Ko icon 인터넷중독 실태조사 17 May 2010.
  9. ^ "S Korea child 'starves as parents raise virtual baby'". BBC News. 5 March 2010. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
  10. ^ Template:Ko icon [1] 2010 Digital Daily article
  11. ^ Pfanner, Eric (2011-09-04). "Naming Names on the Internet". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-09-24.
  12. ^ Choi (최), Yeon-jin (연진) (2011-12-30). "방통위, 인터넷 실명제 폐지 추진". Hankook Ilbo (in Korean). Retrieved 2012-12-31.
  13. ^ Lee, Youkyung (2011-11-08). "Schmidt says S. Korea's Internet regulations could be more 'open'". Yonhap News. Retrieved 2011-11-09.

Further reading

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