"High-Speed Internet as a Basic Communication Right" Eliminating Rural Blind Spots

Universal Service Includes High-Speed Internet
Mandatory Installation of 100Mbps Internet
880,000 Areas Without Internet, Including Mountainous Regions
Full Implementation Starts This Year... Eliminating Slow Internet Areas

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] From this year, the practice of telecommunication providers refusing to install internet in rural areas such as farming and fishing villages or mountainous regions due to "lack of profitability" will be completely eliminated. This is because high-speed internet has been included in the concept of 'universal service,' which is considered a basic telecommunication right. Accordingly, high-speed internet will be provided to 880,000 buildings in rural areas where the internet is still slow or unavailable.

On the 5th, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that since January of this year, with high-speed internet designated as a universal service, all citizens can receive high-speed internet service upon request in any region. Universal service refers to the basic telecommunication services that telecommunication providers are obligated to offer to guarantee citizens' basic telecommunication rights.

As a result, high-speed internet will be regarded as a basic telecommunication right, similar to landline and public telephones, meaning telecommunication providers cannot refuse to offer the service due to profitability concerns. Citizens who cannot receive internet service from providers can apply for high-speed internet through a designated procedure. First, they can enter their building address on the high-speed internet universal service website or call center. If there is no high-speed internet provider, they can apply for service from KT, the designated universal service provider, and receive the service. Sixty percent of the losses incurred from providing universal service will be shared by long-term telecommunication providers with sales exceeding 30 billion KRW.

The government has designated KT as the universal service provider and finalized detailed amendments to the notification regarding internet provision speed and loss compensation rates. The service will be provided at 100Mbps, the fastest speed among countries that have designated high-speed internet as a universal service. A Ministry of Science and ICT official stated, "Compared to overseas countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, which provide universal service at speeds of 1 to 10Mbps, Korea will provide a significantly faster speed of 100Mbps, solidifying its status as a global IT powerhouse."

Hong Jin-bae, Director of Telecommunication Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "By designating high-speed internet as a basic telecommunication universal service, this has become an opportunity to broadly recognize users' basic telecommunication rights, including access to data, which is core to the 4th Industrial Revolution era, and we expect it to contribute to closing the data gap."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.