BUILDING BROADBAND
trajectory was quite different from that of other leading broadband economies (figure 3.2). Strong competition between access technologies was accompanied by falling prices and rising service speeds, with subscribers benefiting from some of the world’s lowest connection charges. Mobile broadband has also been successful in Korea, though some networks lag in adoption. Hence, the Korean case is useful for the many developing countries that will likely see broadband diffuse over wireless, instead of wireline, networks. In Korea, mobile broadband took off in late 2000 following the award of 3G licenses (figure 3.3). In 2002, more advanced Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA2000) Evolution Data Optimized (EV-DO) services began targeting enterprise customers and early adopters. EV-DO services currently have a 30 percent share of the mobile market. In 2006, KT (Korea Telecom) and SKT (South Korea Telecom) launched WiBro services (the Korean equivalent of WiMAX, or worldwide interoperability for microwave access). But contrary to government predictions of 5.0 million subscribers within three years of launch, WiBro had Figure 3.2 Penetration of Wireline Broadband Services in Various Countries, 2000–09 share of population (%)
35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 2000
2001
Finland Sweden
2002
2003
2004
France United Kingdom
2005
2006
2007
Japan United States
2008
2009
Korea, Rep. of
Source: World Bank analysis based on data from TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database.
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