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The quality of the connexion has little to do with geography or urban planning, but national unity and pride: think of South Korea as the country that builds bo

by bertil 11y ago

The quality of the connexion has little to do with geography or urban planning, but national unity and pride: think of South Korea as the country that builds both the largest boats and the fanciest (non-Apple) phones. Large engineering companies are helped by an alignement of government and industrial elites. Other countries with similar traditions (France, Sweden) have large militaro-industrial complexes, in addition to faster internet speeds than the US. Rather than make weapons, South Korea focused on telecoms and boats. They have futuristic speeds because they wanted to, and every one in charge (real estate promoters, local officials) made that happen. They did not stop to install fibre because the mayor didn’t get his pork-barrel, their cut over sales of new flats, or because models projected the installation would not be profitable if only x% of local users would switch to the Premium option: they built it, because internet access was good for everyone.

mc32 11y ago
Counterpoint, Japan also forwent building arms and instead built infrastructure and "robots and ai" and have their chaebol counterparts in keiretsu yet their internet infrastructure lags. I don't think its simple as not spending on arms and having heavy government-industry cooperation.
- rangibaby 11y ago
  Could you explain where Japan's internet infrastructure lags? There has been cheap and fast internet for as long as I have lived here (since 2006)
  - mc32 11y ago
    I misspoke in that I broadly meant not just broadband, but the software and hardware industry in general lags Korea as well as most western economies, of which Japan, despite being in the east, is a "western" economy. So yes broadband is well adopted, but the national industry didn't adopt computer science as well as other economies. That's my feeling anyway, please correct if this take is incorrect.
    - unscaled 11y ago
      I think you're exaggerating on both counts. While rental Wi-Fi in Seoul was cheaper and more reliable (at least last time I was there), broadband in Tokyo is definitely better than America. I may be wrong, but FLETS (NTT's FTTH/FTTB service with 1Gbps speeds) seems to be available everywhere in the 23 wards, and probably most of the urban areas around them. The real problem is that the prices are high for both broadband and mobile, so many people forego broadband for a Pocket WiFi. Seoul is probably cheaper than Tokyo (in mobile, broadband and many other things), but that doesn't make it significantly more advanced. I think the same could be said about software and hardware. I'd like to hear better examples of where Japanese hardware lags behind Korean (in technology level, not sales). When it comes to software, I'd say both countries are actually ages behind the US, especially Silicon Valley - but almost everyone does. I'm not very much familiar with the Korean Software market (except for their SEED and ActiveX fiasco), but being a Samsung owner (on my third Samsung phone) who is not an iPhone fan to say the least, I can't say any good word whatsoever about the Samsung Software. Android is a good OS, but once Samsung add their touch(wiz), it becomes a bloated bugfest. The hardware is definitely amazing though.

by bertil 11y ago

mc32 11y ago

Counterpoint, Japan also forwent building arms and instead built infrastructure and "robots and ai" and have their chaebol counterparts in keiretsu yet their internet infrastructure lags. I don't think its simple as not spending on arms and having heavy government-industry cooperation.

rangibaby 11y ago
Could you explain where Japan's internet infrastructure lags? There has been cheap and fast internet for as long as I have lived here (since 2006)
- mc32 11y ago
  I misspoke in that I broadly meant not just broadband, but the software and hardware industry in general lags Korea as well as most western economies, of which Japan, despite being in the east, is a "western" economy. So yes broadband is well adopted, but the national industry didn't adopt computer science as well as other economies. That's my feeling anyway, please correct if this take is incorrect.
  - unscaled 11y ago
    I think you're exaggerating on both counts. While rental Wi-Fi in Seoul was cheaper and more reliable (at least last time I was there), broadband in Tokyo is definitely better than America. I may be wrong, but FLETS (NTT's FTTH/FTTB service with 1Gbps speeds) seems to be available everywhere in the 23 wards, and probably most of the urban areas around them. The real problem is that the prices are high for both broadband and mobile, so many people forego broadband for a Pocket WiFi. Seoul is probably cheaper than Tokyo (in mobile, broadband and many other things), but that doesn't make it significantly more advanced. I think the same could be said about software and hardware. I'd like to hear better examples of where Japanese hardware lags behind Korean (in technology level, not sales). When it comes to software, I'd say both countries are actually ages behind the US, especially Silicon Valley - but almost everyone does. I'm not very much familiar with the Korean Software market (except for their SEED and ActiveX fiasco), but being a Samsung owner (on my third Samsung phone) who is not an iPhone fan to say the least, I can't say any good word whatsoever about the Samsung Software. Android is a good OS, but once Samsung add their touch(wiz), it becomes a bloated bugfest. The hardware is definitely amazing though.