Synopsis
South Korea has the world’s highest number of broadband services per capita. By early 2009, over 30% of the population and over 90% of households, were broadband subscribers. Hanaro’s acquisition of Korea Thrunet in early 2005 positioned it to better compete against KT. Competition remained strong and mobile operator SK Telecom acquired a controlling stake in Hanaro in 2008, renaming the company SK Broadband. Powercom’s debut of broadband services in late 2005 has put additional pressure on other providers. In this report we describe South Korea’s broadband market, including cable modem, DSL, VDSL, Fibre-to-the-Home, Broadband over Powerline, WLAN, WiFi, Broadband Wireless Local Loop, broadband via satellite and the much anticipated WiBro.