As the UK market continues to grasp the potential for broadband, with speeds of 2 Mb per second hopefully accessible across the UK over the next couple of years, the Korean market is grappling with 1 GB per second broadband speeds by 2012. While this broadband speed is literally light years away from the UK it seems as though Korea is moving towards a situation where 1 GB per second broadband will be available across the major towns and cities offering access to a two-hour movie download within 12 seconds!
At this moment in time vast areas of Korea are accessing broadband speeds of between 50 Mb per second and 100 Mb per second as the norm with streaming media now commonplace across the country. The Korean government is looking to invest around $720 million into the high speed broadband venture which puts the UK government to shame – with UK taxpayers set to foot the bill with a rumoured “broadband tax”.
While the Far East has always been more technologically advanced than Europe and North America it seems that the gap between broadband services in Europe and the Far East is growing. The next couple of years will be vital period for the UK broadband industry which needs to keep pace with developments around the world otherwise businesses and consumers could lose out.