Today, South Korea is indisputably an Internet powerhouse thanks to the nation state-of-the-art infrastructure and tech-aware citizens. Fixed-line access to the Net is found across the country with 12 million out of 15 million households hooked up to the Internet 24-hours a day at a flat rate of 30,000 won a month. Up to 22,000 Internet cafes, called 'PC Bang' here, are tucked into every spare sliver of real estate, armed with top-line personal computers and high-bandwidth connectivity. More than 30 million of the nation 48 million population carry wireless Internet-capable cell phones and the government plans to deploy a cheaper form of wireless broadband, named WiBro, next year. So, just how did the number of Korean broadband subscribers explode from nothing in 1998 when the high-speed Internet was first introduced by Thrunet to the present 12 million Many experts have pointed to the tech-savvy Korean people, a highly urbanized and dense population, an affordable fixed-rate price and full government support as keys to broadband success. Indeed, many Koreans spending many hours everyday on the Web; playing online games, surfing and chatting. Some even say they feel insecure when they are not connected. They are ready to spend real money in the virtual world and are fast in accepting new technologies, making the nation the world test bed for new Internet businesses. Approximately 70 percent of its citizens live in the seven biggest cities and many of them in high-rise apartments close to switching stations with asymmetric digital subscriber lines (ADSL). ADSL pumps data at a maximum speed of 14 megabits per second (Mbps) theoretically and its real-life speed is up to 2.5 Mbps, approximately 50 times faster than previous dial-up modems. This contrasts starkly with many sparsely populated western countries, which suffer from so-called "last-mile" problems of bringing Internet lines to every home. Plus, the government provided loans at preferential rates to major Internet service providers including KT and Hanaro Telecom in the late 1990s to install networks in exchange for maintaining low flat-rate pricing policy. However, there are more factors behind Korea notable achievement in high-speed Internet although they have not been revealed to the media until now for various reasons. Two Stars Boost Internet Thrunet, the nation third-largest landline Internet carrier that was acquired by Hanaro Telecom early this year, started the broadband era with the introduction of cable modems in June 1998. In April 1999, Hanaro launched commercial ADSL services in Korea for the first time in history. ADSL is based on copper legacy telephone lines. The commercial viability of the service was uncertain back then as amply demonstrated by KT move. The former state monopoly decided not to channel money into the business due to a lack of confidence. Then two big 'stars' triggered uproars from broadband fans across the nation: one was footage of film star Oh Hyun-kyung having sex with her manager and the other was online game Starcraft. The problem was that conventional dial-up modem-based access was too late to seamlessly stream the 1998 Miss Korea beauty pageant winner video and people started paying attention to the speed of the connection. ADSL was the answer with its average speed of 2.5 Mbps that can send data equivalent to 50 pages of newspapers per second, and the video that maintained its popularity into 2000 prompted many to sign up for the new Internet. "Oh's case confirmed a tech axiom that porn drives the use of new technologies including video rentals, CD-ROMs, chatting and online shopping," said Stan Jung, analyst from Woori Securities. The other "star" Starcraft also made a notable impact on the progress of the Korean broadband industry. When the real-time strategic game tapped into the nation in 1998 via local distributor Hanbitsoft, it was far from being a blockbuster with just 120,000 people buying the game. With the advent of fixed-rate broadband a year later, however, the bandwidth-devouring online game fully took off with 1999 annual sales topping 1 million sets. During the next four years through 2004, Hanbitsoft sold 2.5 million sets more, a stellar achievement considering most Koreans usually do not pay money in buying software or game programs. Instead, they usually copy them. "Starcraft" and the Internet is an example of a win-win formula. They helped each other become established in the domestic market. Starcraft has 15 million fans here and is still one of the main forces propelling Internet use,Hanbitsoft spokesperson Kang Yu-ni said. With such a favorable atmosphere, Hanaro signed up 134,000 subscribers in 1999 and expanded its customer base to 1.1 million the next year. As the ADSL technology once in question went mainstream, KT also jumped onto its bandwagon in May 2000 and acquired up to 1.7 million clients that year alone. The reasoning that Oh video footage and Starcraft have been drivers of Internet use was accepted by Hanaro Telecom. sertainly, they were two factors that galvanized broadband fever. They contributed much to the early take-off of ADSL Internet although they are not all the driving forces,Hanaro vice president Doo Won-soo said. Even Rep. Byun Jae-il from the governing Uri Party said those two, plus Korean students surfing the Internet for their homework were keys to broadband success. The erstwhile vice information-communication minister, who spearheaded the development of high-speed Internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s, made the point while telling reporters early last month. Role of Anti-Japanese Policy In a report last December aimed at delving into reasons behind Korea remarkable success in high-speed Internet, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) of Britain raised an interesting idea. The Ofcom is the regulator and competition authority for the British communications industries with responsibilities across television, radio, telecom and wireless services. On the presumption that on-line gaming is an important explanatory variable to examine Korea broadband growth, the telecom regulator said the nation anti-Japanese policy resulted in easier access to the Internet. "It is important to note that Korean trade policy limited Japanese imports for some time. As a consequence PCs have always superseded consoles as the main gaming platform in Korea," the report noted. "Many Koreans got their first exposure to Internet access via Internet cafes. This is likely to have created a demand for a wider range of online games beyond the traditional fantasy adventure model most prevalent in the United Kingdom and U.S.," it said. Korea once had an import diversification system, which was aimed at reducing trade deficits with a specific nation by slashing inbound shipments from it. In practicality, however, the policy was applied to just Japan from 1978 through 1999 and console games made by the likes of Nintendo or Sony were not imported to Korea. Kang Yeen-kyu, a researcher at the state-owned think tank Korea Information Strategy Development Institute, said the rationale make sense. sertainly, the lack of availability of console games led Korea gamers to rely on computer games up until the late 1990s. And when the Internet came to town it bloomed owing to the many PC-friendly users. That explains why Starcraft just took off here compared to other nations," Kang claimed. ============== CA Korea to concentrate on system management & security Computer Associates Korea announced the company plan to concentrate on system management and security this year. This year, Computer Associates Korea aims to seize the No. 1 market share domestic system management as well as administration, authorization and authentication (3A) security software during the next three years. Thanks to expanding corporate interest in management software, Computer Associates Korea posted an increase in turnover of 25% in its FY 2005, which ended in late March, in comparison with the preceding year.