Korea as a test bed for the world

 As shown by these earlier posts over the years, I've been interested in the important role Korea can serve as a testbed for emerging digital technologies.   It has attained this status largely because of sustained emphasis on building digital network infrastructure, starting in the revolutionary 1980s.   The Korea Times recently published an article touching on this theme.   I recommend you read it here.

Korea leads the world: In reliance on social media for news

I've posted frequently over the years about the topics of news, the media environment, where and how people access news, and so forth.  If you doubt this, check out these posts from a search for "news."  My interest in these topics dates at least from the mid-1970s when I chose to focus for my doctoral dissertation on a study of U.S. network television coverage of international news.  Little did I imagine at that time that I'd be living in Korea all these years, and continuously from late 1996 to the present.
Korea today possesses the most advanced broadband network infrastructure in the world.   Consequently, it also serves as an important test bed for the world in terms of how citizens, corporations and other organizations react to the changed media environment (or ecosystem).  As shown in the graphic (click for a full size version), a new study by the Pew Center documents these changes.  Fully 80 percent of South Koreans get their news once or more a day from social media.  66 percent check online news more than one time a day.  The graphic speaks for itself, but I recommend reading more from the Pew Center study.

Learning from Korea's world-leading mobile commerce

Given that South Korea has the fastest, most extensive mobile broadband networks and the highest penetration of smartphones in the world, it should come as little surprise that mobile shopping is rising exponentially here. (click on the accompanying graphic to see a full size version)  As noted in a recent report by the McKinsey Group,more than two thirds of South Koreans own a smartphone, "... compared with 47 percent of Americans, 57 percent of Australians, and 52 percent of Britons. South Koreans are also big users of their smartphones, with sales of goods purchased using mobile devices jumping more than fourfold since 2012 to about 10 trillion won, or $9.8 billion."  The mobile commerce market in Korea today represents nearly one third of all web-based sales.  Clearly, mobile commerce is one of many areas where Korea serves as an interesting test-bed for other markets around the world.

The PS-LTE network: Disaster communications as a business opportunity

The mainstream news media in South Korea are filled with reports these days about the tragic sinking of the Sewol ferry one year ago today.  The fact that most of those who lost their lives in that accident were high school students on a field trip to Jeju island only broadened and deepened the nation's anguish.  In all my years living in Korea, I cannot recall an event that affected the whole nation and its entire citizenry so profoundly.  It took months for the economy, politics and social affairs to return to some semblance of normality.
One effect of the the Sewol ferry tragedy was to accelerate this nation's planning for future disaster communications. The disaster exposed the lack of interoperability among responding agencies which hindered rescue efforts.  Last year the Korean government announced plans to build a Public Safety LTE network (PS-LTE) and allocated frequency for it.  As reported by BusinessKorea in January, the national disaster safety communications network would be the first of its kind in the world, and is scheduled for completion by 2017.  The report noted that, according to industry and government sources,"...the national disaster safety communications network project is estimated to be worth 2 trillion won (US$1.85 billion). However, the size of the project is expected to increase to more than 3 trillion won (US$2.8 billion) if 10 year-maintenance costs are included."
The project has drawn considerable interest from both domestic and international companies.  Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent held an event to showcase their PS-LTE technology in January, as did Ericcson-LG, which is collaborating with Nokia Networks and Motorola.  More recently, as reported in The Korea Times, KT announced a partnership with Samsung Electronics in a bid to win the PS-LTE contract.
Other countries, including the U.S., the UK and Canada, have plans to build public safety networks, but Korea's will be the first.  Consequently, regardless of which companies win the contract, this country will serve as the world's test bed for such networks, offering new business opportunities both here and abroad.

Korea's "Smart Grid" Plans

South Korea plans to be the first country in the world to convert its electricity network into so-called "smart grids," as noted by a story in The Korea Times.  Korea plans to implement its high-tech nationwide electricity grid by 2030, at a projected cost of $23.3 billion.  The new grid should help the country reduce power consumption by 3 percent and cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 150 million tons.
A smart grid links electricity suppliers with consumers in an IP-based network.  Many countries are striving toward the goal of having smart grid technology.   Stakeholders in the United States have identified the following performance characteristics of smart grid technology.

• Self healing from power disturbance events.
• Enabling active participation by consumers in demand response.
• Operating resiliently against physical and cyber attack.
• Providing power quality for 21st century needs.
• Accommodating all generation and storage options.
• Enabling new products, services and markets.
• Optimizing assets and operating efficiently.

A simple example of how the smart grid will work is that it will allow home or apartment owners to schedule their washing machines or other appliances to run when electricity rates are lowest.  This is the same principle as the "night-rate electricity boilers" that are so popular for ondol heating systems and hot water in Korea.  The smart-grid will be accessible from both mobile and fixed broadband internet, so people could be able to make adjustments to their home appliances via a mobile handset.
Residents of Jeju Island will get the first glimpse of the possibilities offered by smart grids.  KEPCO and 167 other companies are collaborating to build the nation's first smart-grid test bed

Digital Textbook Plan hits Snag

Korea's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is planning to spend about 18 billion won ($US 15.5 million) to establish e-book infrastructures in 110 schools in rural communities around the country. However, as The Korea Times reports today, there are concerns that the project could be derailed. The consortium that the government selected to provide the e-book readers, led by LG-Dacom and Hewlett Packard, are finding it difficult to keep the price of each device below 1.3 million won, while the government insists it will pay no more than 1.1 million won per reader. This seems like a laudable project, given the rapid convergence that will soon lead to widespread availability of mobile broadband and the ability to download books from such vast digital libraries as the one made available through Google Book search. The Korea Times article notes that the Ministry of Education Science and Technology had approached both LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics to support the project but the companies both declined, citing lack of market size! Perhaps this is the same lack of market size that explains why Apple's iPhone and also Android phones are so slow in arriving in the Korean market. An alternative view would be that Korea's large electronics firms, along with their telecoms service providers, should view the Korean market, although small, as a valuable test bed for products that will be part of the future information society.

Korea to Save Power by Installing Smart Grid by 2030

An article in the Korea Times provides some interesting detail on South Korea's plans to install a smart grid by the year 2030.  The high tech, nationwide electricity grid is expected to create a market worth about $54.5 billion, create 500,000 new jobs annually, and to reduce the country's power consumption by 3 percent.  According to a ministry official, the energy saved will be the equivalent to having seven extra 1,000 megawatt nuclear power generators.  The internet protocol (IP) based electricity network will give consumers more choice, allowing them to pay different rates for electricity used on computers an heating, or different rates for power generated from green technology such as wind or solar power generators.  KEPCO is planning the country's first smart grid test bed on the island of Jeju.