Network management Toolkit

Broadband: How South Korea leads the way

John Borland and Michael Kanellos CNET News.com

Published: 28 Jul 2004 15:55 BST

Matt Renck is spoiled.

Ever since moving to Seoul to teach English two years ago, Renck has had a high-speed Internet connection of eight megabits per second -- only about average for a South Korean apartment, but nearly eight times the typical broadband speed in US households. He watches TV shows over this connection, creates multimedia projects for his class, and regularly updates a Weblog.

None of what he does is revolutionary; it just happens far faster than it would in America. And that's a little revolutionary all by itself.

"I didn't realise how much the Web had to offer until I got to Korea," said Renck, a programmer by training. "I couldn't appreciate it until I got here and saw what true high-speed access does to change your perception of how fast information truly moves."

For Americans, almost none of whom have access to speeds that Renck and many South Koreans take for granted, this difference is jarring. The United States considers itself the centre of technological innovation, yet South Korea has gone considerably further in making a mainstream reality out of the futuristic promises of bygone dot-com days.

Many US executives and policy makers are quick to dismiss the disparity, noting correctly that South Korea's densely populated areas have made it easier for telecommunications companies to offer extremely fast service to large numbers of people. But even with such geographic and demographic differences, the United States can learn some valuable lessons from South Korea's experience in jump-starting a broadband powerhouse.

"I think there are a quite a few lessons," said Taylor Reynolds, an International Telecommunications Union analyst who recently completed a survey of Internet and mobile services in South Korea. "Most of the growth is tied to effective competition, which you don't see in a lot of places in the United States."

The Seoul government's clearly articulated vision for modernising the country's infrastructure stands in stark contrast to the regulatory morass that has stunted development in US telecommunications for several decades. South Korea's policy -- the cornerstone of a national technology initiative to help revive a devastated economy -- has created true broadband competition, which in turn has helped prices fall and speeds rise.