Euromonitor on Global Digital Divide: From Korea to Kenya

The Euromonitor blog has a new report on the global digital divide with the accompanying graphic. (click to see full size version).  The measure represented in this graphic is the proportion of households in each country that possess broadband internet-enabled computers.  Nearly all South Korean households do, compared with only about two-thirds of those in the United States.  The report also notes the following main points.

• Access to and use of broadband internet has significant social, economic and political implications.


• While developed economies continue to have a higher rate of broadband internet penetration than developing ones, growth rates are significantly higher in developing regions.

Notably, the report does not deal with the current explosive growth of mobile broadband services via so-called "smart phones."  However, addition of this important factor would only seem to underscore the main points noted above.

Korea Tops new Government Broadband Index Rankings

The Economist Intelligence Unit has developed a new Government Broadband Index, which shows that Korea ranks number one among the sixteen nations studied.  Not surprisingly, the index is getting attention in the trade press. Using a methodology developed in-house, the index scores countries that have clearly stated objectives on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the best.  The methodology considers each plan's target speed, universal speed, rollout timeframe, cost and regulatory provisions in order to produce the final score.  Topping the rankings are the countries that have the most ambitious speed, coverage and rollout targets, the most appropriate regulations for realizing targets and fostering a competitive broadband market, and where public funding commitments are putting the least amount of pressure on public-sector finances.  Click on the accompanying graphic to see a full size listing of the country rankings in this study.

Australia was ranked ninth on the list, in part because it plans to spend 7.6% of annual government budgets on the rollout.  Korea, by contrast, plans to spend less than 1% of its budget on the rollout and will instead encourage private sector investment.

Britons Say Broadband "Essential": Universal broadband at 2Mbps by 2012

73 percent of Britons questioned in a recent survey said that high speed internet was "important."  According to the BBC, the Communications Consumer Panel's research included 16 focus groups and a face-to-face survey of 2,000 people across the UK.  It is expected that Lord Carter's Digital Britain Review, due to be published June 16, will include a government commitment to provide universal broadband at a speed of 2 Mbps (megabits per second) by 2012.

This BBC article caught my eye because 2012 is the year in which the Korean government has pledged to implement 1Gbps (one gigabit per second) internet in all major cities throughout Korea.  In Britain, as in the U.S. people may want to reconsider what speed broadband is essential!

Megastudy.net: Online Tutoring in South Korea

An online tutoring service started in the year 2000 was founded by a former tutor at a private education institute.  His inspiration for the company came while watching a home-shopping channel on television and he intended to help reduce the education inequality that is produced when nearly eight in ten students supplement public education with study in private cram schools, or hagwons.  As noted in a New York Times article by Choe Sang-Hun, Megastudy.net, the online tutoring service Mr. Son Joo-eun started, may be the perfect convergence of South Korean's dual obsessions with educational credentials and the internet.  By tapping into those concerns, which increase during a recession, Megastudy has become South Korea's fastest growing technology company, with sales expected to grow 22.5 percent this year to 245 billion won ($195 million) even as the country's economy is expected to contract.

Online commercial services like Megastudy charge a relatively small fee, averaging 40,000 to 50,000 won ($30 to $40) for each course a student selects from thousands of online tutorials.   Megastudy competes with the government sponsored EBS, which offers similar tutorials for free.    However, it hires teachers with followings that rival those of pop stars.  Last year one Megastudy teacher generated 10 billion won (nearly $8 million) and pocketed 23 percent as his share.

With the country pouring billions of dollars into making the internet ten times faster by 2014, Mr. Son suggested that the world turn to South Korea for a glimpse of what education might look like in the future.  "Offline schools will become supplemental to online education," he predicted.  "Students will go to school, perhaps once a week, for group activities like sports."

Korea to Build Ultra-Broadband Internet by 2012

I must confess that I was not surprised today to see the local press prominently covering the announcement by the Korea Communications Commission that the government and communications industry would invest some $25 billion over the next five years to build an "information ultra highway."  After all, when then-U.S. Vice President Al Gore gave a famous speech at UCLA in 1994 about the need for the U.S. to build "Information Superhighways," the U.S. failed to do so, but Korea actually built information superhighways.  The Korea Information Infrastructure project, started in 1995, was originally planned for completion in 2010.  However, because of technological advances and industry competition, it was completed a full five years early.  It laid down fiber optic backbone links connecting over 140 cities and towns in South Korea---a massive construction project, but very successful.

Koreans, perhaps more so than any other people in the world, have learned the importance of speed in the information age. Japan would be a close second in this recognition, as I learned at a Seoul conference on Ultra-Broadband last Fall.  This is a lesson that Microsoft should have learned before it released Vista, an operating system that actually ran more slowly than its predecessor, XP.

As reported by the Chosun Ilbo , the Korea Communications Commission on Sunday said it finalized plans for Internet services at an average speed of 1 Gbps through fixed lines and 10 Mbps through wireless. One Gbps allows users to download a 120-minute film in just 12 seconds.

As reported by the Korea Times ,the ultra broadband convergence network (UBcN), which is slated for completion in 2012, will enable users to transmit data at an average speed of 1 gigabyte per second (GBp) through fixed-line connections and maintain the rate of 10 megabytes per second (MBps) on wireless connections, about 10 times faster than existing broadband and third-generation (3G) networks. 
The government plans to replace 70 percent of the country's circuit-switched network, used for fixed-line telephony, with an IP network by 2013. About 50 percent of the mobile telephony network will be IP-based by then.

This announcement about Ultra-Broadband is creating some stir and public debate here in Korea, but my guess is that the plan will be realized, at least as successfully as the earlier KII project that was completed ahead of schedule.  The reason?  Simply that customers here, and worldwide, enjoy the services that ultra-fast internet access provides.

The U.S., Korea and Broadband

Almost on the eve of President Obama's inauguration Business Week has published an interesting article, entitled "Bring U.S. Broadband Up to Speed," and its recommendations are right on target.  As the sub-head notes, "For long term economic growth Obama's stimulus package should include a $10 billion to $15 billion investment in high speed communications infrastructure.  Quoting from the article:

"The U.S. desperately needs to catch up with global leaders in two areas of high-speed broadband communications. The first is extending the current world-class wired broadband service now used by big business, smaller companies, and consumers across America. The second is increasing the transmission speed and reach of wireless service to nearly everywhere in the nation. Achieving these two goals would bridge the digital divide between city and country and provide a powerful productivity tool to all sectors of society: private enterprise, nonprofit organizations and institutions, and every level of government."

The article goes on to note how companies in other countries are leveraging broadband and the internet to operate more efficiently and create game-changing advantages.  Australia, with territory nearly as large as the continental U.S. and a very similar population distribution, has wireless network speeds of 21 Mbps to cell phones, laptops, and other wireless devices on a mobile Internet that reaches 99% of the population.  Plans are to double Australia's network speeds to 42 Mbps in 2009, "enough bandwidth to download a two-hour movie to a laptop on a beach in four minutes."

Business Week could have just as well have elaborated on South Korea.  This country built its first digitally switched network in the 1980s.  The Public Switched Telephone Network was completed in 1987, just before the Seoul Olympics.  Improvements to that network continued until, in the early 1990s leaders here saw the need for building "information superhighways."  The Korea Information Infrastructure project from 1995-2005 laid down the most extensive fiber optic, atm-switched communications network in the world, allowing those who live here to enjoy fast internet service.  However, things did not stop there.  In South Korea, development and investment have been consistent and continuous since 1981!  Policymakers here and most people have come to appreciate the productivity advantages and possibilities brought by the information revolution.  Soon WiBro (Mobile WiMax) will be available throughout Korea, but that will not be the last stage of this revolution.  Ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence will be prominent in the next phase of development.

It seems clear that the U.S. could benefit from Korea's example and that a strong government-industry partnership between the telecoms sectors of the two nations would be beneficial to both as Obama takes office.

Some Year-end Thoughts on the "Information Superhighway"

As far as I can determine from my own research, it was U.S. Vice President Al Gore who gave a speech at UCLA in 1994 that popularized the term "information superhighway."  In that speech, he outlined the Clinton/Gore administration's vision of a national information infrastructure and their proposals for creating it.  He said, in part.

"We have become an information-rich society. Almost 100% of
households have radio and television, and about 94% have telephone
service. Three-quarters of all households have a VCR, about 60% now
have cable, and roughly 30% of households have personal computers.
As the information infrastructure expands in breadth and depth,
so too will our understanding of the services that are deemed
essential. This is not a matter of guaranteeing the right to play
video-games. It is a matter of guaranteeing access to essential
services.
We cannot tolerate -- nor in the long run can this nation
afford -- a society in which some children become fully educated and
others do not; nor can we tolerate a society in which some adults have
access to training and lifetime education, and others do not.

Nor can we permit geographic location to determine whether the
information highway passes by your door."

Elsewhere in his speech, Vice President Gore alluded to the fact that he had coined the "information superhighway" term fifteen years earlier!

Having lived in Korea for the past 12 years, I have enjoyed the benefits of a government-led effort that actually built the "information superhighway."  Yes it did.  The Korean government took its cue from Gore's speech and in 1995 implemented a plan to build the Korea Information Infrastructure (KII).  The government plans unabashedly used the "information superhighway" term in referring to Korea's goal.

So, the idea for the "information superhighway" seems to originally have come from Al Gore. However, the important point seems to be that the highway has been built and is being expanded in South Korea, while it is still a matter for debate in the U.S.  The major current expansion of the "information superhighway" network in Korea is via WiBro, which adds an interesting new mobile dimension to accessibility.

Broadband Convergence Update

The Joongang Daily reports that IPTV operators are "baiting subscribers with cash." With local high-speed Internet service providers using cash gifts as a marketing ploy again, experts warn that the industry faces cutthroat competition which is likely to harm subscribers. Since IPTV and Internet telephony are provided on broadband networks, Internet subscriber numbers are crucial to success. Currently, nationwide sales agencies of the country’s three major high-speed Internet service providers - KT, SK Broadband and LG Powercomm - all provide up to 200,000 won ($147) in cash or other high-value gifts such as the Nintendo Wii game console depending on the number of services people take and their subscription length. For example, SK Broadband offers 190,000 won in cash to subscribers who sign up for its triple-play service - Internet, IPTV and Internet telephony - for three years.

95 Percent of Korean Households Have Broadband Internet

The Korea Communications Commission has announced that, as of the end of July, fully ninety-five percent of the households in South Korea subscribed to broadband internet. This amounted to 15.09 million households, an increase of 620,000 from the previous year. The breakdown of broadband market share among service providers was as follows:

• Korea Telecom        44.7%
  


• Hanaro Telecom       22.4%


• LG Powercom          13.2%


• Cable TV Operators 19.7%

Although the household internet penetration is nearly at saturation levels, an official at the Commission said that the number is likely to increase when Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services are launched in the country next year.

Slow Light to Speed up the Internet?

I hadn't planned another post on the importance of speed for the internet, but ran across a fascinating article from the BBC (click here to read the full article).  Researchers in Britain and the United States say that a huge increase in the speed of the internet could be produced by slowing parts of it down.  The major limiting factor on the internet's speed comes about not from transporting information, but in routing it to its various destinations. Metamaterials could replace the bulky and slow electronics that do the routing, paving the way for lightning fast web speeds. As noted by Dr. Chris Stevens from the department of engineering sciences at the University of Oxford,  the current system ". . . limits the speed of the whole process to the speed of your electronics.  The light and the fibres can quite cheerfully sustain a couple of terahertz, but your electronics can't do more than a few gigahertz."  Using metamaterials to build a completely optical internet may help to get around this problem.  

Speed Matters: The U.S. Lags in Internet Download Speed

It is not only in Olympic swimming events or track that speed is important.  The new 2008 report, "Speed Matters," a project of the Communication Workers of America, quantifies just how much the United States lags behind other nations in the speed of its broadband internet infrastructure.  The full report is available for download at the organization's website, http://www.speedmatters.org/ This second annual survey of internet speeds in each of the fifty states shows, not surprisingly, that the United States continues to lag behind other countries in the world.  The median download speed for the nation was 2.3 megabits per second (mbps). In Japan, the median download speed is 63 mbps, or 30 times faster than the U.S. The U.S. also trails South Korea at 49 mbps, Finland at 21 mbps, France at 17 mbps, and Canada at 7.6 mbps.

The median upload speed from the speedmatters.org test was just 435 kilobits per second (kbps), far too slow for patient monitoring or to transmit large files such as medical records.  The report also notes that about 15 percent of Americans still connect to the internet via a dial-up connection, something that has been virtually nonexistent for years now in South Korea.   It is worth noting that the debate over the importance of high speed, broadband internet was concluded years ago in South Korea.  People here are already enjoying many of the benefits that high speed internet connections bring and, if anything, the Korean populace seems to look forward to even higher speeds in the near future.

The Internet Comes to North Korea!

According to the Chosun Ilbo and other media sources, North Korea will finally join the world wide web and provide internet service from next year.  Kim Sang-myung, the chief of the North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, a group of former North Korean professionals, at a symposium in the National Assembly on Wednesday said, "According to the Internet Access Roadmap it launched in 2002, North Korea will begin providing Internet service for special agencies and authorized individuals as early as next year."   According to The Daily NK website, "Kim Sang Myung is an IT expert from North Korea who escaped from the country in 2004, while he was a Computer Science professor in the Engineering department of Kongsang University. He now works as a professor at Kyonggi University in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea."



The Chosun Ilbo article continues, "Implementation of the roadmap, which major agencies such as the Workers' Party, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, the Ministry of Electronic Industry, and the North Korea Academy of Sciences have pushed for under the instructions of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il since 2002, is now at its final stage, he said. First of all, North Korea will establish infrastructure for a super-speed Internet service network by laying optical cables between Pyongyang and Hamhung and extending them to Chongjin and Shinuiju this year. North Korea has recently succeeded in consolidating security solutions for the prevention of online leaks of data to foreign countries and of online intrusions, and in enhancing service stability. "  Kim Sang Myung is quoted as saying the following about North Korea's decision to proceed with development of the internet. "North Korea is strongly determined to be part of the global community through the Internet. After watching China and Vietnam control the Internet effectively although these countries have opened up Internet wireless networks since the early days of their opening, the North has concluded that it can now introduce the Internet service."

The Portable Internet: What's With WiBro?

The Korea Times chose an interesting headline for an article today about the prospects for Korea's homegrown portable internet technology, WiBro, as it is known domestically, and Mobile Wimax internationally.  "Will WiBro Sizzle or Fizzle?"  Although this may appear brash, I'm going to predict that, in the long run, WiBro or something very much like it will sizzle.  Furthermore, there appears to be no serious downside to the efforts of Samsung and other Korean companies to push for international approval of a mobile internet standard that originated here. 

At this moment in South Korea's rapid evolution toward the ubiquitous network society, it is a safe statement that there are two desireable characteristics of the future media environment:

• It will provide broadband internet access via mobile handsets, PCs and a variety of other devices.  The term broadband internet, as used here, means speed, as in access speeds currently available in Korea, Japan and a handful of other countries.


• To the extent possible, it will be cordless or mobile. 

As things currently stand, the only reason most people would want to plug in a cord or a network cable in order to access the internet, is to achieve an adequately fast connection.   WiBro, aka Mobile Wimax will succeed because it offers both speed and mobility.   Perhaps we're getting ahead of the story here.  There are other countries and companies in the world that may be pushing for their own versions of the "portable internet," as WiBro appropriately dubs itself.  The most notable of these is LTE, which is still several years off.

WiBro has an informative English language web site.  It contains links to several other sites that may be useful for those closely following the development of these technologies, approval of international standards, and related issues.   One is the Wimax Forum.   Another is the Telecommunications Technology Association.   Also of considerable interest is Intel's view of technologies that will enable the portable internet.  

World Leadership in Broadband Penetration to Continue

According to a widely-reported new study by Gartner, South Korea is likely to lead the world in broadband internet penetration for at least another five years.  The nation currently has a broadband internet penetration rate of 93 percent (that means 93 percent of households here have a broadband connection to the internet), making it number one in the world.  The Gartner study projects that Korea's broadband penetration will reach 97 percent by 2012.  According to PC World's account of the Gartner study, the United States will have reached a broadband penetration rate of 77 percent by 2012, while  the rate for The Netherlands is projected at 82 percent, Hong Kong at 81 percent and Canada at 79 percent.   One of the advantages that the top three ranking countries share is that of dense populations contained in small areas.  Worldwide, 17 countries will have broadband penetration rates of 60% or more by 2012, up from five countries in 2007

Mobile Phones are Ubiquitous in Korea

The broadband revolution in Korea has received a great deal of attention, but on the 20th anniversary of South Korea's mobile telecommunications industry, it is appropriate to give mobile phones their due.   As the Korea Times noted in an article marking the occasion, mobile phones have long since become ubiquitos in this country.  The article reminded me of an occasion, five or six years ago, when my wife and I were spending our summer vacation on the island of Ullungdo.  We were having an afternoon snack in the main port city on the island and the view in front of us resembled a "sea of squid" as several women worked to hang the fresh catch of squid out to dry in the sun.  Right smack in the middle of this ocean of drying squid was an "ajuma," a towel wrapped around her head to protect it from the sun, talking to someone on a mobile phone.  That image has stuck with me for years. 

These days ownership of a mobile phone is considered to be the right of every Korean citizen.   Note the following quote from the Korea Times article. ``It is the coming-of-age day for the mobile phone. It is not just a means of communications anymore. It is the center of communication,'' said Kim Shin-bae, CEO of SK Telecom. ``It is not exaggerating to say that Korea's IT industry, which accounts for 29 percent of its gross domestic product, started from the spread of mobile phones.''  I respectfully disagree with the CEO that Korea's IT industry started from the spread of mobile phones, and think that historical evidence shows other sources of its rejuvenation.  However, there is no denying that mobile communication is a big part of the IT industry and the information revolution here.  In addition to being ubiquitous, mobile handsets have become the number one IT export from South Korea, currently exceeding the export volume of semiconductors.