The Republic of Korea's geo-political conditions have made it one of the most advanced telecom markets in the world, according to a new market report from KMI Research.
The study is titled Telecommunications Market in Korea: A Case Study Showing Fiber Demand in an Advanced Telecom Market. It shows that by the end of 2000, Korea had deployed 300,000 cumulative route-kilometers of optical fiber cables. Fiber deployment for the next several years is expected to be mainly in local/feeder part of the networks, where traditional copper lines are still in the majority.
The research also shows that Korea is one of the most optical fiber-rich countries among advanced telecommunications markets in the world. As of 2000, installed optical fiber per capita in Korea was twice that of the United States, and fiber kilometer per square kilometer of land was almost eight times that of the United States.
As a result of government investment initiatives, Korea's telecom infrastructure has leapfrogged that of the U.S. and other developed economies, according to KMI's report. It states that Korea is technologically advanced in several respects including:
* Penetration of current and next-generation wireless services,
* Households with high-speed Internet service,
* Businesses and households with fiber-based access services.
The report states that the comparatively high use of optical fiber-based access in Korea can partially be attributed to geographic and demographic circumstances. The country's population density is 16 times that of the U.S. (465 population per square kilometer in Korea vs. 29 in the U.S.). Also, the Korean network operators, as a group, have installed more optical fiber per square kilometer than their U.S. counterparts. This results in greater proximity to their customer base.
Topics covered in the report include:
* The telecommunications market in Korea including wireless and high-speed Internet,
* The government-sponsored Korean Information Infrastructure (KII) plan,
* Forecast of fiber deployment through 2005,
* Profiles of key optical fiber cable customers, including Korea Telecom, Powercomm and Hanaro Telecom, and
* Profiles of major optical fiber cable vendors, including LG Cable & Machinery, Samsung Electronics Co., Mercury Corp. and Taihan Electric Wire Co.
KMI is based in Providence, R.I. For more information visit