Faster Net link now available at individual homes

KT President Nam Joong-soo connects homes in Sinsa-dong, southern Seoul, with super fast fiber-optic Internet connection. [YONHAP]

Fiber-optic cable connections, previously available only in large apartment complexes, will now be expanded to include neighborhoods with individual housing units, enabling super speed Internet use.
How fast?
How about downloading three MP3 music files in one second, according to KT Corp.
The company said yesterday that it will invest 1.2 trillion won ($1.3 billion) until 2010 to hook up residential areas that are not high-rise apartment complexes with 100 megabits per second of Internet connection.
Until now, only those living in new mass units had access to such service.
The high-speed Internet requires a network of fiber-optic cables. However, most residential areas are only equipped with copper phone lines, which can support Internet connections of four to 13 megabits per second.
KT calls the project FTTH, short for “Fiber to the Home” and said that an initial 402.4 billion won will be invested this year.
It will begin connecting neighborhoods according to population density.
“Once our project is done, Korea will be the first country where fiber-optic cable Internet is generally used,” said Nam Joong-soo, president of KT. “It will also bridge the regional gaps.”
Hanarotelecom, the second largest broadband service provider, is offering similar service.
For the past few weeks, the company has been marketing in residential areas in Seoul with low-story buildings or single-family houses, offering 100 megabit-per-second Internet connection.
Hanarotelecom said that it will spend 330 billion won this year to upgrade its network and another 55 billion won to install fiber-optic lines in targeted neighborhoods.
One of the reasons that Korea’s fixed line operators are spending so much money to boost already-high speed Internet is because firms anticipate even more diverse use of the Internet in the future, with next-generation services such as Internet television and Internet phone service booming.

By Wohn Dong-hee Staff Writer [wohn@joongang.co.kr]