Re: Asian Internet Infrastructure- Korea Telecom DSL Stats
Thread- Yet another area of the world overlooked by the US mainstream financial media. Asia. If you check out the post at Message 12853309 ...you'll see that Cisco generated a fairly substantial sum of $392 million in a single quarter out of Asia. Excluding Japan!
Chambers noted that the demand is coming from broadband access technologies. Exactly what the following article addresses. Appears to be looking pretty good for companies that were willing to stay fully invested in the Asia market during the Asian crisis.
I knew Asia was moving right along in getting connected to the Internet, but I have to say, the figures out of Korea do surprise me. I'm not so sure Korea Telecom's goals will be reached. -MikeM(From Florida)
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Korean DSL Operators Planning to Lead World
By Nick Ingelbrecht
06 March 2000-- Korea Telecom plans to install 1.4 million high-speed Internet access lines based on asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) technology this year, equivalent to the entire world market for ADSL shipments last year.
However, the former monopoly operator's three competitors have responded in kind, by ramping up their own rollout plans in the wake of government projections that the country will have up to 3 million customers for high-speed Internet access services by the end of 2000, compared with 200,000 at the end of 1999.
Korea Telecom's long-awaited ADSL rollout forms part of an unprecedented 1-trillion-won ($885 million) package of investments in broadband access and Internet services this year. That is around one-third of its total capital expenditure for the year, according to Jae Jin Lee, director of Korea Telecom's network access project.
Analysts say Korea Telecom has set itself a target of signing up 800,000 broadband subscribers this year.
"Korea Telecom has made the right decision to increase its capital investment in this area," said Jeff Kahng, telecoms analyst for Credit Suisse First Boston, in Seoul. He said Korea Telecom had further bolstered its Net presence by forging a strategic alliance with Microsoft for portal development, Web server hosting and Web TV via ADSL.
"At the end of this year, there will be more DSL in Korea than anywhere else in the world combined," claimed Jim Southworth, director of advanced network services and technologies for Concentric Network Corp., and a board member for the DSL Forum, London.
Dr. Sang-Hyon Kyong, professor of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul, predicted that the Republic of Korea could have 4 million broadband users by the end of this year, split roughly 50:50 between xDSL and cable modem, a projection even higher than the government's own forecast of 3 million users.
Fierce competition has launched the Republic of Korea into the world's fastest growing market for broadband access services, with carriers racing to roll out rival digital subscriber line and cable modem services.
"Our target is to maintain our number one market share," said a spokesman for Korea Thrunet Co Ltd., which estimates it will need to sign up a further 900,000 cable modem subscribers this year alone in order to see off competition from challengers Korea Telecom, Hanaro Telecom Inc., which provides both ADSL and cable modem services to residential users, and Dreamline Co., a cable modem operator.
"We have 4 million potential cable modem customers and we hope to sign up 20% of them within two years," said a senior executive of Dreamline's Internet business unit.
Lee said Korea Telecom's biggest challenge so far had been the difficulty in obtaining sufficient quantities of ADSL equipment. "We can't get product in time from the manufacturers because of the demand for ADSL worldwide," he said.
But there are still problems to be overcome, he said: "The success of ADSL deployment in Korea depends on vendor interoperability. We have to have an effective method for conformance testing."
Compared with its rivals, Korea Telecom was late in developing a broadband access strategy. Prior to a strategic review last September, Korea Telecom's main focus was on deploying ISDN nationwide. Now, said Lee, studies have shown that approximately 70% of ISDN subscribers in Korea want to upgrade to ADSL service.
The price of equipment has also held back Korea Telecom's investment in ADSL at a time when its competitors were rolling out broadband services, said Lee.
One year ago, Korea Telecom faced paying 1.5 million won per subscriber for an ADSL connection. Now, the figure is about 600,000 won and falling, he said. Vendors have warned that a large-scale ADSL rollout such as that envisioned by Korea Telecom this year will not be easy, although they concede the target is achievable.
"I would not be surprised if Korea ended up being 25% of the worldwide market for xDSL shipments this year, from an insignificant amount last year," said Frank Wiener, vice president of broadband access solutions for Largo, Florida-based Paradyne Corp.
Korean carriers have risen to the challenge by offering cheap broadband access, but as a result have been unable to meet demand. Hanaro Telecom, for example, has been swamped by demand for its ADSL service, which provides unlimited 1.5-megabit-per-second Internet access for $28 per month. |
