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Federal Internet Law & Policy
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Japan

    Derived From: FTC Staff Report 2007 p 115:

    Japan is frequently cited as having some of the lowest prices and highest speeds in the world for Internet service. The Japanese government began a partial privatization of its historical telecommunications monopoly, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. ("NTT") in the mid-1980s. Some observers have characterized Japan's communications sector since this time as shifting away from government-managed competition and toward a more dynamic, market-oriented system.553 Japanese industrial policy since the early 1990s, however, has continued to promote the deployment of fiber-optic infrastructure through the use of subsidies and loans from the Development Bank of Japan ("DBJ"),554 as well as extensive direct investment by NTT.555

    Non-facilities-based startup firms began to offer DSL service in the late 1990s, relying primarily on access to NTT's existing infrastructure. Interconnection regulations at that time, however, did not cover these access arrangements. The new ISPs, therefore, were operating largely at the discretion of NTT, and, in 2000, the Japanese Fair Trading Commission warned NTT over its treatment of new DSL providers.556 At the same time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications ("MIC") required NTT to clarify the terms and fees it offered competitors for access to its network, lease out its unused fiber-optic infrastructure at low prices, and unbundle its metallic and fiber-optic local loops.557 The Japanese government has continued to review policies relating to competitors' access to NTT's network and also entertained a possible breakup of the company.558 By 2001, the new entrant DSL providers began to make significant headway.559

    In addition to other government industrial policy measures, Japan's regional electric power utilities had invested substantially in laying fiber-optic networks since the late 1980s.560 Another company also entered from the cable radio business by deploying 100 Mbps fiber wirelines along its already-existing nationwide electric-pole network.561 By the end of 2005, approximately 44 percent of Japanese households had broadband access.562

    Despite government subsidies for broadband deployment by approved service providers, as of 2003, it has been reported that all Japanese DSL providers were unprofitable, notwithstanding rapid growth in the market for Internet services.563 Thus, some commentators have questioned whether there is sufficient demand for fiber speeds up to 100 Mbps to justify the Japanese government's industrial policy expenditures.564 But a fall in the price of fiber-optic service to below $40 per month in 2003 apparently attracted significant demand.565 Other commentators have suggested that while local loop unbundling may have spurred short-term price competition, it may also give rise to long-term disincentives to invest in new facilities infrastructure and develop new service offerings.566

    Finally, Japan's population density is relatively high at 876 people per square mile. Seventy-nine percent of its 127 million people live in urban areas.567 Thirty-eight percent of Japanese households live in apartment buildings. In Tokyo and Osaka, 66 percent and 52 percent of households, respectively, live in apartment buildings.568 As in the case of South Korea, such demographics appear to facilitate the deployment of network infrastructure.

    Source: Yasu Taniwaki, Economic Counselor and Telecommunications Attache, Embassy of Japan, Broadband Deployment in Japan (Presentation at PPI Nov. 19, 2004)

    Number of telecom carrers (NCC: New Common Carrier)

    April 1985 April 1989 April 1993 April 1997 April 2001 April 2004
    87
    738
    1259
    4726
    9248
    12,522

    Number of Broadband subscribers August 2004: 17 m [12.7 m DSL (44 operators): 2.8 m cable (348 operators): 1.6 m fiber (12 operators)]. Average cost: $35 / month / 40 Mbps. Average 24 Mbps.

    Goal FTTC (Fiber to the Node) by FY2005.

    Fiber deployment FY94 FY95 FY96 FY97 FY98 FY99 FY00 FY01 FY02 FY03
    Nationwide

    10%

    		 13% 16% 19% 27% 36% 43% 59% 72% 80%

    Feb: 2004: 82 m mobile phones (59.8% w camera: 85.7% can connect to Internet)

    VoIP subscribers: 3.9 m (Dec. 2003) (25% of broadband subs at time)

Internet subscriber statisitics Nov 2003:

Korea, South

Derived From: FTC Staff Report 2007 p 113 South Korea is frequently described as the most "wired" country in the world in terms of Internet service. Although it had less than one Internet user per 100 inhabitants in 1995, by 2002 it was one of the world's largest Internet markets, with 26 million users, and, by 2003, 78 percent of South Korean Internet users logged on via a broadband connection.541 Several factors have been cited for this explosive growth.

The South Korean government privatized the historical monopoly telecommunications operator, Korea Telecom ("KT"), in the early 1990s and has extensively involved itself in the telecommunications sector to upgrade the country's information technology infrastructure and to promote computer use by businesses and individuals.542 Initiated in 1995, the Korea Information Infrastructure project has emphasized public-private partnerships in funding a national, high-speed public backbone, information technology pilot projects, and technology investment funds.543 The South Korean government also implemented local loop unbundling requirements in 2002.544

This environment seems to have spurred the emergence of multiple ISPs.545 Some commentators note, however, that many of the ISPs that emerged during the last decade have experienced periods of unprofitability and suggest that market consolidation is already underway.546 Also, in 2004, the South Korean government subjected KT to stricter service and pricing regulations on the grounds that KT's dominance was a barrier to competition in the broadband market.547

Another important factor in South Korea's broadband deployment appears to be the country's high average population density of 1,265 people per square mile with 82 percent of its 48 million people living in urban areas.548 Apartments account for approximately 48 percent of South Korea's housing stock549 and provide housing for approximately 40 percent of its population. The average distance of a customer to a telephone exchange is about two kilometers, with 95 percent of customers living within four kilometers of an exchange, the target range of asymmetric DSL. This close proximity simplifies the last-mile roll-out of such networks.550

In addition, some observers conclude that the Internet has become much more of a cultural phenomenon in South Korea than in some other countries.551 For example, although South Koreans' per-capita income is less than a third of that of Americans, they are willing to spend twice as much of their household income on broadband services.552

Korean, North

Malaysia

Year Regulator Established: 1998 | Approval Required for ISP to Start Operations: None. | ISP Price Regulation: No. | Source: Scott Wallsten, Regulation and Internet Use in Developing Countries, Table 1 (Draft Dec. 2002)

Mongolia

    Year Regulator Established: 1995 | Approval Required for ISP to Start Operations: Formal. | ISP Price Regulation: No. | Source: Scott Wallsten, Regulation and Internet Use in Developing Countries, Table 1 (Draft Dec. 2002)

New Zealand

Phillipines

Polynesia

Samoa

Singapore

Solomon Islands

Sri Lanka

    Year Regulator Established: 1991 | Approval Required for ISP to Start Operations: Formal. | ISP Price Regulation: Yes. | Source: Scott Wallsten, Regulation and Internet Use in Developing Countries, Table 1 (Draft Dec. 2002)

Thailand

Turkmenistan

Vietnam
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