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South Korea to invest $11 billion in broadband networks

06 November, 2002 12:04 GMT+08:00

SEOUL (Reuters) - Aiming to enhance its position as the world's most wired country, South Korea unveiled plans on Wednesday for telecom companies to invest 13.3 trillion won ($10.9 billion) in high-speed broadband networks by 2005.

South Korea, which is well beyond the rest of the world in broadband take-up, boasts that more than one fifth of the population currently has access to high-speed Internet services.

The Ministry of Information and Communication said that under the plan all households would be able to get fast-speed Internet access within the three-year framework.

"By 2005, all the households across the country will be able to access the Internet at a minimum rate of one megabit per second," the ministry said in a statement.

KT Corp 30200 , South Korea's largest telecoms company, and other Internet service providers (ISPs), will invest the money, which includes 258 billion won in government loans, through 2005, the ministry said.

The ministry did not provide a breakdown of the investments.

South Korea had 10 million high-speed Internet lines at the end of October, accounting for 21 percent of its total population of 48 million, the ministry said.

If slower dial-up modem Internet access is counted, then almost 60 percent of South Koreans regularly surf the Internet, the ministry said.

South Korea has spent 11 trillion won on building Internet infrastructure since June 1988 when Korea Thrunet Co KOREA , now the country's third largest ISP, launched a high-speed Internet service via cable network.

The ministry said the country would have 13.5 million subscribers of broadband Internet services by 2005, with an average data rate of 20 megabits per second.

At that rate, it takes one second to transmit the equivalent of 370 newspaper pages, the ministry said.

KT Corp, the country's largest ISP, had 4.6 million broadband subscribers, or 45.8 percent of the domestic broadband market as of October 10, the ministry said.

Hanaro Telecom Inc 33630 , the number-two ISP, had 2.86 million users, or 28.6 percent, followed by Thrunet, which had 1.3 million or 13.1 percent.

The ministry data included broadband subscribers of smaller regional ISPs, which offer high-speed Internet services using leased lines from larger operators such as KT.

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