Every so often a pundit or a journalist rediscovers South Korea and presents it as a broadband nirvana. And it is! Still, not many try and write about how South Korea became center of the broadband world. No mention of South Korean government’s gener…

Very interesting post and one that hits on some of the social factors as well as the active government role in the success of broadband and mobile technologies in Korea. Having lived there and having worked with the Korean government in the past as well as interacting with the tech industry there, there’s no doubt that Korea wants to be a global player in Broadband, Mobile, and Multimedia. SK’s recent move here (with Earthlink) is a good indication. I think the other factor that will help Korean companies is their relatively strong affinity with Chinese culture, which should give Korean companies a relative edge over Japan, their biggest competitor in the region in addition to the other Western competitors. Should be an interesting decade for Korea to see if they can indeed become global. In addition, there are MANY, MANY innovations in Korea that we could learn from, although, the applicability of those innovations makes sense in the same way here is another story.