I've recently come to South Korea to visit a friend for a month or two before travelling through most of Asia and Europe, and I'm quite interested in comparing the ADSL services in the different countries around here.
In his flat here in Seoul, he pays 40,000 won (roughly R260) a month (was installed within 2 days of asking for it) and we consistently get speeds (on both upload and download) of close to 500kb/s. There is of course no cap whatsoever, and shaping is unheard of.
As a result, the internet is a different place - you want to watch a movie tonight? Just download it quickly. We've downloaded entire series of Lost, Scrubs, Las Vegas etc etc and it just keeps going, there are about 40 DVDs here with downloaded stuff. Due to the entertainment value it provides, having the internet available like this has turned my friend here (as well as several others I've met) into very computer literate people where before they were clueless.
What's more, if I walk into town and sit in a coffee shop I can open my laptop and connect to about 15 different wireless networks that are freely available for anyone in range to use. No cost, nothing at all. The coffeeshops even provide PCMCIA wireless cards in case you need one... these wireless networks are a bit slower than the one at home (I assume due to the fact that several people are sharing them) but you can still download between 150 and 200kb/s. Feels a bit slow now...
Hopefully all of this gives you guys a nice idea of what life can be like. I'm so glad I won't be receiving any Telkom bills again (hopefully ever again). That's another thing... he's had his connection here for 6 months now and not once, yes - not once, has he ever had a problem with the billing. It is almost heaven.
In his flat here in Seoul, he pays 40,000 won (roughly R260) a month (was installed within 2 days of asking for it) and we consistently get speeds (on both upload and download) of close to 500kb/s. There is of course no cap whatsoever, and shaping is unheard of.
As a result, the internet is a different place - you want to watch a movie tonight? Just download it quickly. We've downloaded entire series of Lost, Scrubs, Las Vegas etc etc and it just keeps going, there are about 40 DVDs here with downloaded stuff. Due to the entertainment value it provides, having the internet available like this has turned my friend here (as well as several others I've met) into very computer literate people where before they were clueless.
What's more, if I walk into town and sit in a coffee shop I can open my laptop and connect to about 15 different wireless networks that are freely available for anyone in range to use. No cost, nothing at all. The coffeeshops even provide PCMCIA wireless cards in case you need one... these wireless networks are a bit slower than the one at home (I assume due to the fact that several people are sharing them) but you can still download between 150 and 200kb/s. Feels a bit slow now...
Hopefully all of this gives you guys a nice idea of what life can be like. I'm so glad I won't be receiving any Telkom bills again (hopefully ever again). That's another thing... he's had his connection here for 6 months now and not once, yes - not once, has he ever had a problem with the billing. It is almost heaven.
