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American View On Korean Broadband Leadership

prostoalex writes "South Korea remains the world's undisputed broadband leader (in terms of penetration) with 25 broadband lines for every 100 people as of year-end 2004. But how did it come to that? Joel Strauch moved there to teach English and in his letter to PC World he portrays the everyday life in broadband heaven as well as names the reasons for Korean broadband dominance: 'An ambitious, nearly $11 billion program, it appears to be working. Studies have shown that over a quarter of Koreans have broadband and that anyone who wants it can sign up--with some ISPs charging as little as $19 a month for DSL. I pay $30 myself, for a 1.5-megabits-per-second (mbps) connection--twice the speed of my $50-a-month service back home in the United States.'"

10 of 527 comments (clear)

  1. Theyre using it to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    P2P their Nuclear simulations

  2. Re:New York City: where's the fiber? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Because you're replying to an idiot who is in denial. It's always fun to see the outlandish excuses us-americans come up with, should their country not be the greatest of em all.

  3. Re:New York City: where's the fiber? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    You're lying (or don't know what you're talking about). I have a friend from New York and he is amazed on every visit how good we have it with internet connectivity price/performance wise. (Oh, your provider upped the speed *again*!?)

  4. Huh, hello, how is $30 cheap? by thunderbee · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Not talking about lines per head here, they sure have an impressive count; but i've got 20Mb down, 1.5M up (yes, 20Mb down, it's not a typo, it's ADSL2+) for 30 a month. Now, that's what I call cheap.
    Oh, and free, unlimited national calls included.
    8Mb goes for 15.

    --
    In my opinion, Scientology is a cult you should avoid.
  5. Re:Size by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Because the entire country's resources aren't concentrated on ONE of the fifty states, you stupid fuck.

  6. Put Up or Shut Up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    Also what do you think Korean moms who can't bear babies do? Yes genius. They adopt orphans!

    That claim does not refute what I said. 3/4 of the adopted orphans in Korea go to Westerners (usually Americans). Koreans decline to adopt because they view people outside their family as inferior vermin.

    Of course there is that preference of a boy over a girl, but that runs on every culture.

    Well, again, you do not refute what I stated. The SRB at birth is 1.20 in South Korea. Koreans tend to abort female fetuses. This kind of sick behavior does not exist in Japan, the USA, and other Western countries. Hell, such sick behavior does not even exist in Vietnam.

  7. Re:Port scanning by Beta · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    English is the de-facto standard language of the internet and technology. An ISP without english speaking employees has no business connecting to the internet. It's not like learning passable english is hard. I should know, I did it by the time I was 12 (as did the vast majority of all the other students).

  8. FVCKER: Put up or Shut UP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    Here is the most recent information for South Korea. Scroll down to the bottom, and you will see a chart showing the sex ratio at birth (SRB) for South Korea to be about 1.14. Fast forward to 2005, and the ratio is about 1.20

    Also, you avoided commenting about Koreans rejecting adoption. 3/4 of all adopted orphans in Korea go to Westerners, usually Americans. The Koreans hate to care about people who are outside for their families' bloodline.

    That data from the CIA book is out of date.

  9. Re:A bit more than $30/mo by Rotten168 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Every once in a blue moon taxes are returned to their rightful owners... the taxpayers. Just because it rarely happens doesn't mean it's impossible.

    And I'm happy where I live too. Did I say you weren't happy where you live? What does that have to do with anything?

    Incidentally the internet came into being as a byproduct of the war machine. But you probably knew that.

  10. Re:FVCKER: Put up or Shut UP by spuzzzzzzz · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    That data from the CIA book is out of date.

    Funny that the data on the site you linked to only goes up to 1990. (Actually up to 1992, but the data on the graph is a five year moving average so the graph goes up to 1.14 in 1990).

    --

    Don't you hate meta-sigs?