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.

Speed: The Giga-Korea Project

Recent posts have noted South Korea's continued world leadership in broadband internet connection speeds, and its demonstration outside the lab of a new, fast advanced-LTE technology.  To place this country's emphasis on internet speed, present and future, in context one needs to consider the newly-announced Giga-Korea project.  Under the banner of "Giga Korea," both the private and public sectors will push ahead with a mega-scale network R&D plan from 2012 to 2020. By means of it, the government intends to turn Korea into the country where the world’s finest mobile telecom service is provided.

As reported by The Electronic Times, the KCC (Korea Communications Commission) and Knowledge Economy Ministry announced the three-phased blueprint to achieve mobile communication leadership for the future on January 26. The participants, including several other ministries, are going to come up with the relevant details by the middle of this year. The total budget for the project amounts to 10 trillion won.

Korea Ranks Number One in Fourth Annual "Speed Matters" Survey

The Communications Workers of America has released its fourth annual "Speed Matters" survey of broadband internet speed in the United States.  As shown in the accompanying graphic (click to see a full size version) their report benchmarks several other countries around the world, including South Korea.  The new report argues that speed matters because 1) speed makes the promise of the internet a reality, 2) U.S. economic growth depends on high speed internet, 3) millions of Americans don't have high speed internet, and 4) the U.S. trails far behind other countries.  According to this latest report, the United States ranks fifteenth among the countries of the world in average broadband internet speed.

Korea Still has World's Fastest Average Internet Speed

The latest report from Akamai, based on data for the fourth quarter of 2009, shows that South Korea still has, on average, the world's fastest internet connections.  This was the subject of an earlier post, based on data from the third quarter of last year.  Those who are interested in changes from quarter to quarter can read the report but the overall picture remains largely the same.  On a personal note, I continue to enjoy fast internet access, both at my desk and while on the move via my iPhone.

Korea: Fastest Internet Connections in the World

Akamai has released its latest quarterly State of the Internet report, this one for the 3rd quarter of 2009.  Not surprisingly, it shows that South Korea continues to have the fastest internet connection speeds in the world, and by quite some margin over second ranked Japan.  As shown in the graphic in the upper left (click to see full-size graphic), Koreans on average connected to broadband internet at a speed of 14.6 megabits per second, almost twice as fast as the 7.9 Mbps recorded for second-place Japan.   (Note that Akamai uses its globally-deployed server network to collect data for these reports.  The company estimates that it sees over a billion internet users.)

For further detail, readers will want to download and read the entire report.  Some of the highlights include:

• South Korea has six of the top ten fastest cities in Asia, all with average speeds above 15 Mbps.  They were Masan, Iksan, Koyang, Seocho, Poryong, and Ilsan.


• 74 percent of the nation's population connected to broadband internet at speeds greater than 5 Mbps.  This compared to 60 percent in Japan and much lower percentages in other nations around the world.  Only 24 percent of U.S. citizens connected at speeds above 5 Mbps.


• The breakdown of speed distribution for leading countries, as shown in the graphic below (click to see full size version) shows that South Korea's drive toward implementing Fiber To the Home (FTTH) is having an impact.  Sixteen percent of the population connected at speeds greater than 25 Mbps, a figure no other country matched.

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!

"What's Broadband?" Billions in Stimulus Funds are at Stake

The headline I chose as the title for this post appeared in today's online issue of U.S.A. Today. It offers further proof that, when it comes to broadband internet policy, the United States seems to be on a different planet than people here in South Korea, in the EU and elsewhere. Congress has earmarked $7.2 billion in stimulus aid to deploy broadband in underserved parts of the USA. But what does that mean, really?

The Federal Communications Commission is trying to come up with answers. At the request of lawmakers, the agency is in the process of defining "broadband," "underserved" and other terms. The FCC is advising the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which will make the final call on how stimulus money gets doled out. Opinions about what constitutes "broadband" vary wildly. Big incumbents such as AT&T favor a tiered approach to the speed of data delivery, starting at a minimum of 200 kilobits per second. Tech giants such as Intel say 100 megabits is more reasonable, given the explosion of bandwidth-hogging applications such as video streaming.

While this was the news from U.S.A. Today, Forbes carried an article with some advice for President Obama from the President of KADO, The Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion. nearly 80% of the general public uses the Internet regularly--KADO has focused on helping people with disabilities, senior citizens, rural dwellers and low-income families get online. These groups have a much lower Internet adoption rate, around 40% combined. To reach people in remote areas, it partners with local governments and civic associations and even holds classes in private homes. Volunteers do most of the teaching. Son says KADO's education efforts have taught 10 million Koreans how to e-mail, search the Web and download files. Beyond its domestic programs, KADO also functions as the Korean government's global IT ambassador. Its international efforts include establishing IT training labs in places like Kenya and Laos, organizing a corps of Korean volunteers to teach IT education abroad and hosting an annual forum for IT experts from developing countries.

All these programs, naturally, cost money. KADO has a staff of 142 and an annual budget of approximately $45 million, which is fully funded by various branches of the Korean government. KADO was originally established as Korea's Information Telecommunication Training Center in 1982 and has evolved into its current form over the past decade.

Speed Matters--I

After reading today's report in Reuters, I think I'm going to have several more posts on the topic of broadband internet speed, so just consider this the first in a forthcoming series.  Not surprisingly, some telecoms companies in the United States want no set internet speeds or targets in that portion of the economic stimulus devoted to broadband internet.   From the public discussion of broadband internet here in Korea and in the United States, it almost seems that the two countries are on two different planets.

• In February the Korean government announced that it would build an internet infrastructure capable of providing most of the population with 1 gigabyte per second speeds.


• The ITU, the OECD and other international organizations have long ago concluded that broadband internet is a critical infrastructure for development and for advanced economies.


• Telecom companies vying for $7.2 billion in broadband funds included in President Obama's economic stimulus plan urged regulators not to mandate a super-fast Internet speed as a criterion for winning the money.

In the United States, some of the telecoms companies are still arguing that internet speeds should be set by the market.  This despite the fact that the market appears to have failed over the past 15 years in the U.S., at least when it comes to providing widespread access to broadband internet.  On a visit to Minneapolis-St. Paul in January of this year, I was surprised to see that one company is still actively promoting its dial-up internet access on a cost-basis, at only $9.95 per month.

Broadband internet service today is what plain old telephone service was a few decades back.  If the U.S. government does not establish goals for the provision of internet service at modern, competitive speeds, who will?   From the sound of today's discussions in the U.S., it will certainly not be the telecommunications companies.

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.

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.