In Korea the entire country will have 1 Gbps service by 2012. Currently, Koreans can get speeds up to 100 Mbps, which is still nearly double the speed of Charter's new 60 Mbps service.

The Korea Communications Commission finalized plans for Internet services at an average speed of 1 Gbps through fixed lines and 10 Mbps through wireless. One Gbps allows users to download a 120-minute film in just 12 seconds. The aim is to give users seamless access to large-capacity, high-quality convergence services such as IPTV.

The new plan by the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) will cost 34.1 trillion ($24.6 billion USD) over the next five years. The central government will put up 1.3 trillion won, with the remainder coming from private telecom operators. The project is also expected to create more than 120,000 jobs - a win for the Korean economy.

This plan will bring innovation to the public's digital lives" a spokesperson for KCC said in a press release. When will the U.S. Government ever devise such a plan for Americans? For now, most of us are stuck with 3-10Mbps service for those of us who are able to get it. For the rest, many are still stuck on dialup and some are happy to stay with it.

I think all US and European countries could learn a thing or two here, consistently restricting and slowing down integration of what is the future of the internet [via techfragments].