Korea Thrunet Sees 6-Fold Growth to 1 Mln Subscribers This Year
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2/9/00 9:20:00 PM
Source: Bloomberg News
Seoul, Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Korea Thrunet Co., Korea's largest high-speed Internet service provider, said its subscriber base will grow more than 6-fold to 1 million this year as user preferences quickly shift to higher capacity online content.
Thrunet, which currently has 156,000 customers, also expects that the number of Korean subscribers to high-speed Internet services will grow as much as 10 times this year to between 2 and 3 million, out of a total population of 47 million.
It's own 1 million forecast, if achieved, would make Thrunet one of the world's largest broadband providers.
Korea is ahead of any other country in terms of broadband rollout in terms of percentage of population,' said Lee Jae Hyun, senior vice president of Korea's first Nasdaq-listed Internet company, in an interview with Bloomberg News.
Broadband access to the Internet is growing as ISPs increase the range and complexity of their online content. Such services must be delivered over high speed data networks instead of the conventional personal computer modems and telephone lines used by most people who log onto the Web.
Downloading a music file -- an increasingly popular use for the Internet --can take up to 20 minutes using conventional telephone lines. Such downloads can be completed in less than 30 seconds with a cable modem and a dedicated line that carries more data.
Early Adopters
Thrunet's optimistic forecast for the expansion of broadband growth in Korea is based what it believes are unique factors in the local market.
'Korean's feel that they have to catch up, move faster and do things before others,' said Lee. 'If they see value in something they will adopt it quickly.'
Korea is Asia's second largest Internet market, with more than 7 million ISP accounts.
As well as paying for their ISP subscription, Koreans are charged for connection time on the telephone network. Lee said this favored migration to broadband services, which bypass the telephone network, eliminating call charges.
The three-and-a-half year old Thrunet charges subscribers a one-time fee of 40,000 won ($35.63) for installation and 38,000 won per month for the service. Conventional ISPs charge between 10,000 and 15,000 won per month.
The speed of the uptake of broadband has created a shortage of supply, with as many as 100,000 customers waiting for a Thrunet connection, Lee said.
The waiting list is partly because of a shortage of specialized modems required. That will be solved shortly, with Motorola Inc. to begin shipment of 20,000 modems a week to Thrunet in about two weeks. |
