Overview

The liberalization and deregulation in telecommunication industry since 1990, have encouraged the huge investments from private sectors and also facilitated the establishment solid infrastructure for telecommunication in Korea. As a results, Korea is now one of the most advanced countries in the world in terms of Infrastructure and usage of Telecommunication with 58 telephone lines per 100 persons and 57 wireless service subscriber per 100 persons. In the broadcasting sector, the number of TVs and CATV subscriptions per 100 households is 109 and 46 as of 2001. As completion of Mid-, Long-term projects for establishing "e-Korea", the level of telecommunication infrastructure of Korea is expected to reach that of the developed countries such as US and Scandinavian countries with the growth of the IT industry. (1)

1. Tele-density

The deregulation and fair competition environments of Telecommunication industry has created a large amount of investment in this sector and increased the number of telephone subscribers up to 475 per 1000 persons  

Telephone line subscriber

2. Internet eXchange (IX)

The Korea internet eXchange (IX) service is interconnection or network access point established in Korea, provided by NCA (KIX, www.kix.ne.kr), Korea telecom (KTIX, www.kix.net), Dacom (DIX, www.bora.net) and Korea Internet Neutral eXchange (KINX, www.kinx.net). It allows local internet service providers with a primary connection to the global Internet, to access and exchange local Internet transactions without accessing the global Internet. The nonprofit public Internet networks are mainly interconnected to KIX of the NCA while commercial ISPs are linked to KTIX, DIX, or KINX. KTIX and DIX are founded and operated by KT and Dacom, both of which are backbone communication companies also involved in the ISP business. (2)

IX connectivity Map

(Source: 2002 Korean Internet White Paper)

State of Bandwidth

(Source: National Computization Agency)

3. Internet Backbone Network.

Korea Information Infrastructure (KII) project has pursued from 1995 to 2000. as a result, High-capacity and High-speed optical transmission network in 144 regions were built and the backbone in major big cities have been upgraded to bandwidth of 155 Mbps ~622 Mbps and a plan to advance the speed beyond 2.5 Gbps in core backbone areas in node regions and interconnected sections is being pursued for the future. These Government supported projects and market competitions have encouraged the rapid market penetration of broadband internet service at the low price.  

3.1 Commercial Network

Currently, Korea commercial networks are provided by 94 ISPs including Korea telecom (KORNET), Dacom (BORANET), Onse telecom (Shinbiro), Hanaro telecom (Hananet), Thrunet Corp (Thrunet). GNG (GNGIDC), SK telecom (SKSpeed Net) and Dreamline (DreamX).

Details of providers are available at 2002 Korea Internet White paper at MIC (3)

3.2 Non-Profit Network

A. Korea Information Infrastructure (KII)

▶ PUBNET-Korea Telecom (KT)

The high-speed Internet leased line provider PUBNET has provided a router-oriented network since 1997 and commercial service for public institutions since January 1998 in order to meet the demands in the public sectors in connection with constructing the KII project. From 1998, it has promoted the establishment and advancement of ATM switching networks and Internet networks based on ATM.

▶ PUBNETPLUS-DACOM

PUBNETPLUS is providing high-speed Internet service for national and public institution through ATM network as part of KII project. Internet trial service was implemented in September 1999, using ATM network that was competed as the second stage of the KII project.

B. HPCNet/KREONET-KISTI

▶ HPCNet

HPCNet is a backbone network which was built to provide KISTI's supercomputer infrastructure to all of supercomputer users in Korea. HPCNet aims to help government agencies, educational agencies, public and corporate laboratories to utilize supercomputers.

▶ KREONET

KREONET is one of the 5 national backbone network which interconnects government laboratories, science and technology related public agencies, university and corporate laboratories. It is a nonprofit ISP which seeks to enhance research productivity by sharing computer resources and promoting exchange research data.

▶ KREONET2

KREONET2 has been in service from 2001 aiming to provide an advanced network service of existing research computer networks. Working with the APII Testbed project supervised by MIC (Ministry of Information and Communication) it provides research-only network service to more than 300 domestic research institutes with the local research network gateway, STAR TAP. In 2002, it promotes a link with Dutch R&D network, SURFnet and is expected to play a key role in international joint research.

▶ 6KANet-NCA

6KANet KREONET was constructed as part of a project to increase the size of the subscriber network of IPv6, and is providing IPv4/IPv6 internet service by using 1Pv6 supporting routers and OS. Currently 38 organization is subscribing service.

▶ EDUNET

EDUNET allows access to educational information that is in constant demand by students, teachers, parents as well as the general public. It it the Korea's largest educational information system which provides various IT services as well as comprehensive educational portal site since 1999.

4. Access Network

4.1 Wired Internet Service

Currently, most households and companies access the internet via cable telecommunication network such as leased lines, dial-up, ISDN, DSL and HFC network. Among those, DSL connects 56.8% of all internet users. The number of broadband subscribers at the end of 2001 was 7.8 millions, a rapid growth of 194% from previous year.

A. Dial-up, ISDN Service

Although Internet access via dial-up modem id available in all regions with telephone service, it is rapidly replaced by high-speed Internet (DSL, HFC) because of the limitations in transfer speeds for large files or in receiving multimedia services.

B. Broadband Internet Service

The number of Broadband subscriber at the end of 2001 was 7.8 million, a rapid growth of 194% from previous year. IT indicates that over half of 14.4 million total households have broadband connections. However, the rate of increase appeared to be slowing down, showing that the number of high-speed Internet subscribers has reached a saturation point.

Subscribers of broadband internet services and its type

▶ Cable Modem Internet Service

HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coax) internet service network is comprised of fiber optical cable connections between the broadcasting station to the nodes, and a coaxial cable connections from fiber optical nodes to each subscribers. Since the introduction of HFC Internet connection services in July 1998, Hanaro Telecom, Thrunet, Dreamline, SKT, Dacom, and Onse Telecom are currently providing theses services. Thrunet as a frontrunner has a stronghold on the market and Hanaro Telecom is right on its heels.

▶ ADSL Service

xDSL technology can be classifies into many other forms but ADSL is clearly dominating the market. Currently ADSL service is led by KT and Hanaro Telecom and has experienced rapid development through the competition between two companies.

Status of ADSL services

(Source: Ministry of Information and Communication)

The National comparison for Internet Service costs

(Source: High-speed internet market analysis by Hyundai research, 2002)

(comparison among Hanaro Telecom, Singapore Telecom, Taiwan MegaMedia, USA Excite@home)

4.2 Wireless Internet Service

A. Wireless Internet

The type of wireless (or Mobile) communication networks currently being provided are cellular phone, TRS, Mobile data and mobile paging. The number of domestic mobile communication subscribers as of December 2001 totals 29.5 million.

Since the selection of CDMA as the standard for 2^nd generation mobile communication, SK Telecom is carrying out the cellular business, and KTF and LG telecom are carrying PCS business. The mobile web browser market can be divided into WAP Mobile application protocol, ME (mobile explorer) and i-mode.

The mobile based internet users

Number of Domestic mobile Communication Subscribers

B. Satellite Internet

Satellite Internet is a communication service which enables high speed internet access at maximum 3Mbps using Mu-Gung-Hwa satellite. It is provided by SK telecom (¡°satellite megapass¡±)  with 12,000 subscribers since commercialized in June 2000. As the high-speed internet using ADSL and CATV has been widely spread, the demand for satellite Internet service is mainly occurring in mountainous and in isolated regions where it it difficult to provide high-speed internet service.

Subscribers to Internet via Satellite Services (Korea Telecom)

C. Broadband mobile local loop (BWLL)

KT, Hanaro, and Dacom were selected in 1999 as BWLL providers (Broadband mobile local loop) and provide services in big metropolitan area such as Seoul, Busan, Jeju, and parts of Gyeonggi region after implementing service in July 2000. Kt has been providing services as of February 2001 and has yet to surface on Dacom's service implementation. At the end of 2001, the Korean BWLL market reached at merely 30,000 subscribers.

Subscribers of BWLL

4.3 International Submarine Cable

Currently, the international submarine optical cables connected to Korea are composed of a total of 12 Underwater cables (see the figure below) and its total capacity accounts to 16,75 Terabps. The domestic submarine cable relay stations are located in 8 regions and its total capacity accounts to 133.48 Terabps. After 2002, the reliance on submarine optical cables is predicted to reach 98% of international transfer lines, exceeding that of satellite communication.

Structure of Korea Submarine optical Cable Network

(Source: 2002 Korea Internet White paper by Ministry of Information and Communication)

International Submarine optical Cable

(Source: 2002 Korea Internet White paper by Ministry of Information and Communication)

Sources and Links

(1) 2002 Korea Internet White paper by Ministry of Information and Communication

  : download of whole white paper is available at www.mic.go.kr/eng/jsp/main.jsp

 Other useful information :

 -  Information Statistics at http://stat.nca.or.kr

 - Samsung Economic Research institute (SERI) at www.koreaeconomy.org (English version)

    www.seri.com (Korean version)

This site was developed for the class,

"Impact of National Information Technology Environments on Business"

at Kogod School of Business, American University, Washington DC

Created by Jung Im Won & Hyun Sang Park

Last updated : December  18, 2002

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