South Korea, to get superfast 1Gb Internet

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Thus far, only 16 customers can subscribe to 1Gbps services on a single optical fiber line. That is one of the main barriers to the commercial debut of the 1Gbps Internet,'' said Kim Byoung-hwi, an Official at the Taejon-based institute, about 200 kilometers south of Seoul.

``However, we have created technology taking advantage of various length frames of optical fiber, increasing the number 32 fold to 512 users per cable,'' Kim said.

Kim projected the cutting-edge technique would substantially raise the commercial viability of the 1Gbps landline connectivity, which he expects to start this year.

The throughput of 1Gbps is fast enough to let people download a high-definition movie file in seconds. This currently takes several minutes using a regular network.

The speed is also roughly 100 times faster than the current norm of the wired Internet _ around 10 megabits per second.

``We developed the technology through an alliance with a domestic network equipment maker, which aims to commercially launch the 1Gbps Internet services late this year,'' Kim said.

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