Blazing internet speeds in South Korea

The Washington Post ^ | Saturday, March 24, 2012

[MinorityRepublican]

Of the 10 cities in the world with the fastest internet connections, the top five are in South Korea. The top two cities, Taegu and Taejon, averaged speeds above 20 Mbps, fast enough to download high-definition video with ease. Across the world, internet speeds are rising, averaging 2.7 Mbps at last count

[Revolting cat!]

Wait till the Gay Leader decides to invade them, they’ll be slower than molasses in kimchi!

[2ndDivisionVet]

When I left the last time in 1982, it was still something of a Third World country, although quickly industrializing. When my late father left in 1953, it was devastated wasteland with the majority starving or nearly so. Isn't that amazing? Much of the explanation lies in their work ethic, family values and dedication to education. We could learn a lot from them.

[2ndDivisionVet]

When I left the last time in 1982, it was still something of a Third World country, although quickly industrializing. When my late father left in 1953, it was devastated wasteland with the majority starving or nearly so. Isn't that amazing? Much of the explanation lies in their work ethic, family values and dedication to education. We could learn a lot from them.

[expat1000]

This could be very misleading. 20 MB is available here in Thailand, but for any site out of the area (and many in) it is no faster/better than 512KB due to a very poor international link - must be at least one major chokepoint somewhere.

[JRandomFreeper]

When I was there in 2002, they still worked hard, and on my ride to the base from the airport, the thing that amazed me was all the Christian churches.

Also very touching was that on Sept 11th, 2002, they handed out poppies to the American service members and held a memorial formation where I was. I was told the entire country held a moment a silence.

Loved the country, loved the people.

/johnny

[MinorityRepublican]

[Moonman62]

Much of the explanation lies in their work ethic, family values and dedication to education. We could learn a lot from them.

I think it's an example of what happens when a government allows the people to be productive.

[Trod Upon]

I guess this means they’ll be surfing for HD3D porno now.

[mamelukesabre]

Just imagine what they could do if NATO had the balls to take out the commies in north korea allowing the two koreas to unite. I think if that happened they would have the number 3 economy in the world in under ten years.

[mamelukesabre]

They also happen to have the most beautiful women in the entire planet, imo.

[zipper]

So that’s why they kick everyone’s a$$ in online video games.

[Tainan]

Another thing to consider is “in country” vs “overseas.”

Speeds can vary greatly.

[gogogodzilla]

Got that right. I could bittorrent a 4 GB file in about 15 minutes... but couldn’t watch a 480p Youtube clip without pausing it and making dinner.

Anyone connecting to anywhere outside of South Korea will not see these speeds. Heck, I pinged Tokyo, Japan from Seoul... and got the same speeds.

This article is very misleading because of that.

[hummingbird]

Thanks for history lesson on your homepage, mamelukesabre - it was a pleasure to read the whole page.

[Sherman Logan]

Actually, you are both partially right.

North Korea, pre-WWII, was the developed part of Korea, the south being largely agricultural. Obviously the government of the North has destroyed its economy, making the people unable to be productive.

OTOH, without the "work ethic, family values and dedication to education" of Koreans the pro-business policies of South Korea would have been ineffective.

IOW, if Haiti were by some wild chance to be taken over tomorrow by a reincarnation of Milton Friedman it would make little difference. Good government policies allow people to become productive, they do not and cannot cause them to be productive.

Which has unpleasant implications for the American future. Remove bad government policies and a productive citizenry could dig us out of our present hole in relatively short order. But I'm concerned that Americans as a group have lost much of the culture that caused us to be so productive for so long. Getting it back will be very difficult. If it's even possible.

[wildbill]

Yesterday my download speed was measured by Numion.com at 46kilobytes per second on Clearwire. I couldn’t even get enough speed to open up their website to complain.

Ah, but am I one of those bandwidth hogs that deserves to be throtteled” back. No. My average daily use is below 100 megabytes. I download a movie from Netflix about once a month simply to justify keeping it.

Clearwire advertises unlimited usage at up to 4g speeds. They achieve that very rarely. Most of the time my download speed is between 1g to 2g. If I complain, they reset my modem and the speed picks up for a while. I get so tired of fighting with them I usually just take what I get.

[Moonman62]

From what I’ve read on DSLReports, some people get great service from Clearwire and some don’t, depending on the tower being used. Keep in mind that Clearwire is a company that is barely staying solvent, and they are going to be loading more and more traffic on their network to try to stay in business.

[wildbill]

Trust me. It ain’t the tower coverage. This company has oversold its ability to produce for its current customers but it is still advertising for more, using the same old con about unlimited 4g speeds for less. I believe they are being sued as a class action but no individual will make out from that but the attorneys will get a windfall.

As soon as my leased equipment is paid for, I’m changing to a company that may cost a little more but gives the closest service to the advertised speed.

There’s no point in paying a monthly fee for bad service.

[dfwgator]

Imagine what Vietnam would be today, had the South won.