By CNET Asia Staff, 22 October 2003 08:30
NEWS The South Korean government has announced it will start laying the groundwork for 10 million digitally networked homes, in what is expected to be the largest such project in the world.
According to a report in the Korea Times, the project run by the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) will begin in a month's time and will be completed in 2007. The government will foot about a third of the estimated $31m cost, with the rest coming from technology partners in the private sector.
Next month, the ministry will select two consortia consisting of broadcasting, construction and two or more digital home appliance firms to build the infrastructure and manufacture devices. Each group will then select two or more of seven urban areas, which include cities like Seoul, Pusan and Inchon, in which to build. The areas were selected for their high internet adoption rate and availability of terrestrial digital TV service, according to the report.
When completed in 2007, families will be able to access a range of online services from not just computers but from smart home appliances.
The Korean government predicts that the global home network market will grow annually by 19 per cent, reaching $162bn in 2010. But in Korea, the growth will be an even faster 32 per cent a year, reaching $23.5bn in 2010.
The Korean government has earmarked digital home networks as an area that it take the industrial lead in globally, according to previous reports.
The huge Korean conglomerates of Hyundai, LG and Samsung have also invested heavily in smart home networks.
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1. anonymous
I think the most interesting thing about this is the suggestion (from the number of homes and expected cost) that the South Korean government expect the average cost of digitally networking a home to be $3.10 - surely that's an extreme bulk discount?