By the end of 2012, South Korea intends to connect every home in the country to the Internet to a gigabit per second. It would be an increase of ten times from national standards already blazing and more than 200 times faster than the average in the United States home installation.
A pilot project initiated by Government gigabit is underway, with 1,500 families in five cities South Korean wired. Each customer pays approximately 30,000 won a month, or less than $ 27.
"South Korean Homes now have access to the Internet increased as much as we do," President Obama said in his State of the Union address last month. Last week, Mr. Obama has presented an expenditure programme broadband 18.7 billion.
While Americans are clip-clopping along, trailing the Latvians and the Romanians in terms of Internet speed, South Korea are a full gallop. Their average Internet connections are far faster than even Hong Kong's no. 2 and no. 3 Japan, according to Akamai Technologies Internet analyst.
Supervising the expansion plan of South Korea's daring is Choi Gwang-gi, 28, an engineer soft-spoken. He is hardly part of a visionary or a revolutionary as he Mousepad around his Office of Government-grey vinyl slippers.
But Mr. Choi has glimpsed the future — the way the Internet should do for the next decade or so — and he's trying to help the Korea get there. During an interview in his Office busy in central Seoul, Mr. Choi outlined — pencil — a tidy little schematic ambitious project from the Government.
"A lot of Koreans is early adopters" Mr. Choi, said, "and we thought we need to be prepared for things such as 3D TV, Internet protocol TV, multimedia, high-definition gaming and video conferencing, ultra-high-definition TV, cloud computing".
It doesn't matter that some of these devices and applications are still being developed by engineers in Seoul, Tokyo and San Jose, California To Mr. Choi, extravagant, nothing seems unthinkable or improbable anymore. And here the Government will be prepared with plenty of network speed when all new ideas, games and gizmos come pouring out of the pipeline.
"The gigabit Internet is essential for the future, absolutely essential, and all are technologists say this," said Don Norman, co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, a technology consulting firm leader in Fremont, California, "all we're going to do cloud computing, for example, and that will not work if not always connected. Games. Videoconferencing. Video on demand. All this will require huge bandwidth, enormous speed. "
The South Korean project is also aimed at increasing broadband wireless tenfold.
Even as South Korea aimed at more fast connectivity, Internet addiction is a serious social problem here. Deprogramming camps have sprung up to help young Net-addicted.
A pair of South Korea, arrested last year, became so immersed in a role playing at an Internet Cafe that their daughter of 3 months of starving to death — though fed and nourished a daughter named virtual, online Soul.
But industry leaders are plowing ahead.
"The name of the game is as fast as you can get content," said Kiyung Nam, a spokesman for the consumer electronics giant Korean Samsung Electronics. "People want to download and enjoy their content on the go. But now is not perfect. It is not perfect. "
The idea of gigabit Internet is not a new, said Mr. Norman, the American consultant. But large-scale adoptions have not yet taken hold, especially outside of Asia.
Japan and Hong Kong offer gigabit. The Australia has a plan in the works for 2018. Google is developing pilot programs for the Stanford campus and other locations in the United States. Chattanooga, Tennessee, and started a service reference to a staggering $ 350 per month citywide gigabit.
Any technical barriers in the upgrade of the existing infrastructure of South Korea are minimal, according to the engineers and network managers. Telephone cables lines DSL — conventional high-speed — must be replaced. But fiber optic lines already widely in use are suitable for a gigabit speed.
South Korea once more poor than Communist, Korea now has the largest economy in the world. Recovered from the ravages of the Korean war by combining heavy industries of national economy such as automobiles, steel, shipbuilding and construction. But when labour costs began to rise, compete globally in the areas obtained more stringent, in order to "knowledge-based industries were the way forward," Mr. Choi said.
South Koreans pay an average of $ 38 a month for connections of 100 megabits per second, according to the Organization for economic cooperation and development. Americans pay an average of $ 46 for service of molasses by comparison.
Mr. Choi refused to guess what might charge private providers in South Korea for the service of one-gigabit. But he said that it would be nowhere near the $ 70 per month charged to gigabit rates in Japan.
"I can't imagine anyone in Korea paying that much," he said. "No, No, that is unthinkable."
Gigabit program of Mr. Choi is just one of many Internet-related projects, coordinated by the Government here in the next four years. Their total cost is projected to be $ 24.6 billion, the Government should put up about $ 1 billion of this amount, according to the Commission communications of Korea.
Private South Korean firms, including KT (formerly Korea Telecom), SK Telecom and cable providers, CJ Hellovision are the main participants in the project gigabit. Financial contribution from the Government in 2010, said Mr. Choi, would be only $ 4.5 million.
For now, most consumers Koreans use their blessings of bandwidth in large part to lightning Internet access and entertainment — multiplayer gaming, streaming Internet TV, fast video download and such. Companies are making more high definition videoconferencing, simultaneous sessions especially with more overseas customers and technologists are eager to see what new enterprises are created or existing businesses will be reinforced through the new gigabit functionality.
One of the customers already connected to the pilot program of Mr. Choi Ki soo Moon is, 42, a consultant to the Internet. He scored a gigabit link about a year ago through Hellovision CJ, although due to the internal wiring of her apartment building its throughput connection watches to 278 megabits per second.
But even that speed — about a quarter-gigabit — has dazzled him.
"It is much more convenient to watch movies and drama shows now," he said.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 24, 2011
An article on Tuesday about superfast Internet services in South Korea misstated the number of families involved in a pilot project. Under the programme, which aims to connect customers to the Internet at speeds of up to one gigabit per second, 1,500 homes in five South Korean city has been linked, not 5,000 homes.
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