U.S. author sees networks as basis of future exports

Information technology firms in Korea will be able to export their high-speed Internet technologies to other countries and become global, said George Gilder, author of “Telecosm: The World After Bandwidth Abundance,” yesterday at a press conference. Mr. Gilder, chairman of the Gilder Group, a consulting firm based in the United States, is in Korea to attend the Seoul Digital Forum, an international technology conference organized by Seoul Broadcasting System, one of the national broadcasting companies. The network that links computers will become more important in the future, rather than the computers themselves, he said. Korean infotech companies such as Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, and KT have realized a world that is based on networks, he said. In addition, he said, this state-of-the-art broadband technology can be exported to other countries to contribute to narrowing information gaps in the global village and can create new profits. Mr. Gilder said many investors are still ignorant of what Korea has accomplished in the cable and wireless Internet sectors. He also said he would actively introduce Korean IT companies to his readers so that investors on Wall Street can obtain correct information about those companies. Mr. Gilder also forecast that cellular phones would take a larger role in our everyday lives. Dubbing phones as “teleputers,” a mix of a telecommunications and computer, he said that cell phones may take place of computers in the near future. He will be giving a speech today at the forum on “Networks at the Core of Digital Convergence.” by Yum Tae-jung