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.

Report from Barcelona--August 2009

I've been in Barcelona since Monday of this week for a one-week vacation.  A couple of observations seem relevant to this blog.



1.  The hotel where we're staying provides wireless internet, gratis, but the speeds are noticeably somewhat slower than what we're used to in Korea.  In Korea, even in the countryside of Kangwon province, we get a solid 54 mbps connection.  In Barcelona, we've found ourselves waiting for web pages to load, and unable to do some online seat booking with British Airways for our return trip, presumably because of the slower speeds and online forms timing out.



2. Our hotel advertised "international channels" on the television, which is provided via a relatively new Samsung flat screen set.   We were a bit surprised, so asked at the front desk and found that they are shifting all hotel television to digital within a week.  So they sent a technician up to our room who configured the cable so that we could receive all of the analog English and other language channels.



Looking forward to getting back to the land of the morning calm and fast internet!

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.