NEWS: South Korea’s Grand Telecom Plan

This peice of information is from IndiaITweekly magazine.
International— Discussions about Asian telecom often begin and end with India and China. However, another country is secretly making a name for itself. In recent weeks, South Korean companies have signed deals with Earthlink, Nortel, and Verizon Wireless. Executives and government officials expect the trend to accelerate as the benefits of cooperation become more
pronounced and political and trade policies continue evolving. San Hoon Lee, a director at South Korea’s Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), said that new partnerships represent a shift in how companies perceive themselves. Conglomerates, known as chaebols, aspire to be global forces, not just South Korean companies selling overseas. Economic reforms have moved the country “away from a centrally planned, governmentdirected investment model toward a more marketoriented one,” a U.S. State Department document stated. North American firms are going to South Korea to catch a glimpse into the future. The government subsidizes broadband connections, which has led to the best high-speed internet penetration rates in the world. According to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, there are 21.3 high-speed internet subscribers per 100 people in South Korea as compared to only 6.9 in the U.S. Sean Ryan, a spokesman for iPark stated in a press conference that the industry is not content with stopping at G3 technology. South Korean companies want to develop prototypes and core technologies for fourthgeneration mobile communications by 2007. Research is also currently being conducted on home networking technologies and digital multimedia broadcasting technologies for consumers. The technology is designed to have advantages overvideo-on-demand , 3G, and other existing services. “Some South Korean companies are doing things that you wouldn’t see over here,” Ryan said. “U.S. companies are using the market to gauge when we’re ready for it.” The recent $440 million deal between Earthlink and SK Telecom may be the tip of the iceberg in deals to come.

“Kids in Korea are downloading video on their phones, watching television, and listening to
music. They’re using locationbased services and finding their friends wherever they are.” -
Sky Dayton,
Chairman of Earthlink