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South Korea ISP Demonstrates 10 Gbps Speeds

South Korea's SK Telecom today is showing off 10 Gbps connectivity SK Broadband at the Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunications Union. According to Akamai’s Q2 2014 The State of the Internet report, South Korea tops the charts by delivering an average Internet connection speed of 24.6Mbps, significantly faster than the fourteenth place 11.4Mbps seen by the US.

SK Telecom didn't offer any specifics on actual deployment of such speeds, but a Ministry of Science and Technology spokesman did take a moment to rub the US's nose in it:

quote:
"In the 1960s the world watched NASA send men to the moon and many of us grew up amazed at the constant advancements of the Americans,” said Natsuki Kumagai. “Now the Americans watch us.”

“In my travels to the United States, it is very plain they have lost their way in advancing broadband technology,” said Pyon Seo-Ju. “Internet access is terribly slow and expensive because American politicians have sacrificed Americas’s technology leadership to protect conglomerates and allow them to flourish. Although unfortunate for America, this has given Korea a chance to promote our own industry and enhance the success of companies like Samsung that are well-known in the United States today."
Of course demonstrating a technology at a conference is a far cry from fuller deployment, though there's little doubt that South Korea leads the pack when it comes to broadband speeds.

Most recommended from 63 comments


54761437 (banned)
join:2013-01-18
Durham, NC

4 recommendations

54761437 (banned)

Member

God bless 'em

At least the South Koreans will call a spade a spade with regards to our pitifully slow and overpriced Internet service in the U.S.

MikeP
@73.40.136.x

2 recommendations

MikeP

Anon

And a little more...

This same line of reasoning could be applied to a great number of industries in the U.S. albeit from different countries. And our politicians and business "leaders" are sacrificing what our ancestors created and worked hard for in order to generate short term profits for their share holders. Frankly, I think most share holders are looking for a reasonable return on their investments, long term prospects to justify continuing to hold the equity and not "out of the park" returns that often tend to be a flash in the pan. I don't even think it's the share holders as much as it's the "corporate leaders" trying to maximize profit for the sake of bonuses and large institutional stock holders that are looking to maximize every penny without regard to the long term health of the corporation since they'll sell at X price point and be gone before the damage is realized. A pity really.