S Korea, Internet Powerhouse of the World!

Not just the World of Warcraft... the WORLD! That's right, for those who were unaware (including myself, until I heard a recent BBC World story highlighting broadband statistics) South Korea leads the world in average broadband speed at a whopping 15 Mbps!!! That is 10x the world average of 1.5 Mbps, around 2x the second place finisher Japan, and more than 3x the pitiful 3.9 Mbps average in the US which ranks 17th in terms of speed... (source)
Not surprisingly, they also lead the world in internet traffic per capita. At an average volume of 30 GB per person per month, South Korea's internet traffic dwarfs that of the lowly 7.0 GB average in the United States, let alone the 5.0 GB of Japan or Western Europe (source)! Of course this is expected... I mean if you had a faster connection wouldn't you download more information?!?

But South Korea also boasts an excellent record of making internet access available to much of their citizenry. Perhaps not first thought of by most as one of the best examples of Democracies around the world (though certainly in Asia!), many South Koreans feel that they have an inherent right to obtain internet access; and with over 94% of households having some form access to the net, it appears they are right!!! (source)

Of course I shouldn't complain... Living in the Netherlands where we are in 4th place with 74% of households online (compared with ~51% in the U.S.!), and an average speed of 4.9 Mbps (coming in 7th place!). We actually lead the world in the number of broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants: 38.1 compared with ~33 in Korea and ~27 in the U.S. This of course must mean our broadband providers are doing relatively poorly in terms of speed, since our average traffic is so dwarfed by S. Korea... (source)

But what do all these statistics have to do with the price of tea in China? Well I'm glad you asked, because it's just countries like China (and Iran, Sudan, Cuba, etc.) that represent very different attitudes towards internet connectivity than our friends to the south of the 38th parallel! In fact, reporters without borders have labelled such countries the "Internet's Black Holes", as their governments routinely restrict the content their citizenry is able to access on the internet (source). The US has made some news on Monday, in an effort to give voice to those residents of countries which would limit or filter their access to the world wide web. As the Secretary of State puts it:
"In the 21st century, expression and assembly are carried out on the Internet so we are going to continue to support those people who wish to circumvent and be able to communicate without being blocked by their own government"
Basically what they've done is lifted the restrictions on the export of internet communications software to these countries, which should make it easier for social networking sites such as Twitter, Buzz, and Facebook to make inroads into these otherwise closed societies. This is all in the wake of the Iranian demonstrations on their Independence Day a few weeks ago, when the government shut down internet communication out of the country yet a few digital videos of the tamping-down of demonstrators made it out days later in hard copy, and were posted on the internet; and after Cuba got some bad press when a political prisoner died from pneumonia related to the conditions of his imprisonment...
The bottom-line is that information and communication has rapidly become a new vital life resource because of the ways the internet is able to deliver it to everyone and anyone's front doorstep at the click of a button. Countries that wish to compete in a global marketplace require a citizenry which is highly connected, to be able to develop in a rapidly changing world and to innovate and grow ahead of their competitors (for education, news, social movements, etc.). But perhaps even more so, countries that wish to SURVIVE are going to have to be able to brook dissent and criticism from their citizenry, and respond accordingly (i.e., as do most Democracies, for example). Because 200+ years ago, Paul Revere rode 15 miles spreading the news of revolution to 40+ riders who went on to deliver his message. Whereas today, one post on Twitter has the potential to reach millions of followers, all across the globe, in less than a minute (depending on how many Mbps you can get!)...

Related news updates:
US to upgrade fiber-optic networks...
Google to spearhead their own upgrade plans...