Broadband in South Korea

[bhchao]

As many of us know, South Korea is the world's most wired nation. The Internet connections there are super fast, with many households having broadband speeds of 20mbps. In comparison broadband speeds in the US are about 1.5 mbps. I have a 56k modem (broadband users, don't laugh )

Much of the credit for this high-wiring success should be given to the South Korean government, who worked closely with telecommunications providers on providing the right infrastructure to deliver high-speed broadband services to the nation's citizens. Today more than 80% of South Korean households have broadband connections of 20mbps or more.

This is remarkable considering that in 1995, less than 1% of the country's residents had Internet access. That all changed with the Asian financial crisis in 1997, which hit South Korea particularly hard. The crisis was a wake-up call for Kim Dae Jung's government, who realized the need to reinvigorate the economy through technological innovation. The government provided an environment conducive to broadband growth by privatizing state-owned monopolies like Korea Telecom, and encouraging competition between different telecom providers. This shot prices straight down while delivering high quality Internet services to residents. Even rural areas have broadband connections.

In Seoul, 75% of residents have broadband. This comes as no surprise since Seoul is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. This certainly aids telecom providers and the government who are working on an infrastructure to deliver information services to a confined area containing a large residential population.

Many people may point to the high population density in Korea's urban areas as a major factor in its broadband success. But if that was the case, why doesn't New York or Chicago have broadband speeds that come anywhere as close to Seoul's? I think the cooperation between the government and the private sector in this area was a key factor. Feel free to disagree with me on this.

In the 1960's and 70's, Park Chung Hee helped transform South Korea into an export-driven economy. Kim Dae Jung and his government deserves credit for aiding the transition into a technology-driven economy that has helped propel living standards even higher.

During the 1990's, the US was the leader in technological innovation, helped by brainpower in Silicon Valley and foreign human capital. Also former President Clinton and Al Gore were big sponsors of Internet growth and were huge supporters of the Internet economy, with Gore even claiming that he invented the Internet. There has been a downward trend in the US since Dubya (or Dumbya) took office, coupled with the events of 9/11. Students from overseas (especially East Asia) are studying in their own countries and working for companies in their respective countries. These students are also majoring in technical-proficient areas like science and engineering. On the other hand, American students seem to gravitate more towards the liberal arts, with the number of math and science grads in big decline.

I recently read an article saying that students in Finland, South Korea, and Hong Kong are top in the world in math and science, while US students lag far behind according to a recent study. The Korean model shows that with the right talent, environment, and leadership, a private telecom sector working side by side with government encouragement can do wonders for a nation's citizens.

http://news.com.com/South+Korea+leads+the+way/2009-1034_3-5261393.html

[naruto494]

woooooww.....i didn't think it was actually true...my friend was telling me about koreas" superior connection".... i'd die to have 20 mbps >.

[skylee]

the cooperation between the government and the private sector

Hong Kong media have an ugly description for this (regardless of the intention of the cooperation) - 官商勾結

[bhchao]

Hong Kong media have an ugly description for this (regardless of the intention of the cooperation) - 官商勾結

That kind of sentiment is less prevalent in South Korea. One reason why South Korea became one of the Four Tigers in Asia is because of the cooperation between the chaebol or private entrepreneurs and Park Chung Hee's government. Korea used to be a very Confucian society (much more so than China) where there was a strong respect for hierarchy and authority. Respect for the government's economic leadership facilitated cooperation between the private and public sectors. Other reasons for the country's economic progress include an emphasis on education and learning (another Confucian virtue), a common collectivism, and a strong resolve to match or even exceed the postwar economic recovery of their former colonial masters.

There is also the issue of emotionalism. Koreans have a higher tendency than the Japanese to show emotions more openly. Many Koreans can get very passionate when trying to work together to achieve a common collectivist goal, and when that happens the results can be very positive.

What works in South Korea may not work for other countries due to differences in values.

[skylee]

What is "chaebol"? Does it mean 財閥? (I guess from the pronunciation and the context)

[bhchao]

Chaebol is similar to 財閥 except that it is family-owned, like Hyundai, Daewoo, Samsung.

[bhchao]

Another reason for Korea's IT/broadband success is that Hangul is easy to use on the keyboard. Hangul is similar to the English alphabet, except that the former has 24 basic phonetic characters. Another difference is Hangul does not differentiate between upper case and lower case.

Also South Korea has a highly literate population with a literacy rate of 99%. This is due to the simplicity of Hangul, which is easy to learn.

Chinese in comparison has thousands of characters, and the Japanese language inherits this complexity in the form of Kanji. So the standard Korean keyboard is much easier to use, which is another reason for the success of broadband and IT in general in South Korea.