South Korea is planning to increase broadband service levels tenfold from current speeds to reach 1 Gbps by 2012, according to local news website Chosun Ilbo.

The Korea Communications Commission is reported as saying that the government and communications industry will be investing around KRW 34 trillion (US$ 28.9bn) over the next five years in the project.  Although super-high speed Internet will be available mainly in large cities, fixed-line subscribers in smaller towns nationwide will also then have access to downstream speeds of between 50 and 100 Mbps, according to the reports.

According to OECS statistics for 2008, South Korea leads household penetration of high-speed Internet services worldwide at 94.1%.