Ubiquitous Network Societies Case Study of the Republic of Korea Dr Tim Kelly Head, Strategy & Policy Unit, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) New Initiatives Workshop on Ubiquitous Networks Societies Geneva, Switzerland 6-8 April 2005 1 The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the ITU or its Membership. Dr Tim Kelly can be contacted at tim.kelly@itu.int.
Broadband per 100, Top 20, 1 Jan 2005 Korea is (still) #1 worldwide in broadband penetration Around 80% of homes subscribe to broadband Korea has benefited from platform competition: DSL technologies Cable Modem Appartment LANs Wireless LANs, satellite etc Very low price per (e.g., <US$25 per month for 2Mbit/s) Note: Figures used in slide do NOT include wireless broadband (e.g., 3G). Source: ITU World Telecom Indicators Database. Korea (Rep.) HK, China Netherlands Denmark Canada Switzerland Taiwan, China Belgium Iceland Sweden Norway Israel Japan Finland Singapore USA France UK Austria Portugal 20.9 19.4 19.3 17.6 17.0 16.3 16.0 15.5 15.1 15.0 14.3 14.1 12.8 11.6 11.4 11.2 10.3 10.1 8.5 DSL 24.9 Overall broadband penetration rate Cable Modems and Other - 5 10 15 20 25 30
Korea is also a world leader in 3G mobile UK, 3.7% Italy, 6.7% -CDMA ubscribers Japan, 31.8% HK, China, 0.7% Estimated total at 30 June 2004 = 14.9 million CDMA 1xEV-DO subscribers Korea 1xEV-DO, 53.7% Other EVDO, 1.0% In addition to CDMA 2000, W-CDMA and WiBro have been licensed Also >360 000 WLAN subscribers at end 2003 Other WCDMA, 2.0% Korea, W-CDMA 0.3% By June 2004, there were around 35m mobile handsets, of which: 22m CDMA 1x 8m CDMA 1x EVDO Rest of the world, 63.9% CDMA 1x subscribers Korea, 21.8% Japan, 14.3% Estimated total at 30 June 2004 = 103 million
Korea s unique public/private cooperation Prepare for ubiquitous network society: improve competitiveness IT 839 Strategy (2004-07) Maximise ability of all citizens to use ICTs Vision of a creative knowledgebased society E-Korea Vision 2006 (2002-2006) CYBER KOREA 21 (1999-2002) Ten priority areas Annual action plans National Framework Plan for Informatization Promotion (1996-2000) National information superhighway Korea Information Infrastructure Initiative (1995-2005) Administration, defence, public security, finance & education National Basic Information System (1987 1996) Focus on manufacturing Measures to nurture IT Industry (1987 1985)
Korea s IT 839 Strategy 8 services 3 infrastructures 9 new growth engines WiBro Service DMB Service Home Networking Telematics Service RFID based W-CDMA Service Terrest. Digital TV VoIP Broadband Convergence Network (BcN) Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN) Next-Generation Internet Protocol (IPv6) Next-Generation Mobile Communications Digital TV Home Networking IT System on Chip Next-Generation PC Embedded Software Digital Contents Telematics Intelligent Service Robot 5 Source: MIC Korea.
Licensing WiBro Licensees: KT Hanaro SKT Frequency: 2.3 GHz Licenses: 3 awarded (Feb 2005) Bandwidth Per user: 1-2 Mbit/s Total: 100 MHz Maximum accessible speed for users: Practical: 60 km/hour Theoretical: 250 km/hour Pricing estimates Monthly unlimited use: Flat rate, est. 15 USD Source: MIC Korea.
7 Selected examples of ubiquitous networks in Korea Digital TV delivered to mobiles DMB service Mobile handsets used as wallets Moneta service Telematics (automobile/mobile) Nate Drive Avatars in gaming Fashion wardrobes for avatars Self-adaptive telephones that find the cheapest networks Nespot SWING, One-Phone DU
Source: ITU World Telecom Indicators Database. 8 Conclusions Korea as a laboratory of the future ~ Three years ahead of Europe in broadband ~ Two years ahead of Europe in 3G mobile Korea as an example of public/private policy partnership Strategy of picking technological winners Gov t reinvestment of profits from spectrum auctions Korea creating new revenue Twice the global rate of growth in telecom spend as % of GDP 5.0% 4.5% 4.0% 3.5% 3.0% 2.5% 2.0% 1.5% 1.0% Korea (Rep.) World 1992 2002 Telecoms revenue as a % of GDP
Thank you The full case study (50pp) is available at http://www.itu.int/ubiquitous Tim Kelly Tim.kelly@itu.int 9