The government has launched the “Giga-KOREA Project,” calling for the development of Gbps broadband connections by 2020, 40 times faster the current broadband infrastructure. 

The inter-ministry project is a roadmap for not just upgrading network infrastructure, but also pursuing shared growth in all area of the IT ecosystem, including software, terminal, platform, and content. It involves six government agencies, including the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the Korea Communications Commission, the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, and the Ministry of National Defense °™  as well as industry, academia, and state-funded research institutes. 

It will require the government and the private sector to invest a combined 550.1 billion won at a ratio of 75:25 during the period between 2013 and 2020.

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) President Kim Heung-nam said, “The Giga KOREA Project is a pan-governmental project to prepare for the future of the IT sector in the next decade and gain momentum as a global ICT power.” 

“The project has the ultimate goal of building a free digital information distribution structure for a Gigabyte-per-second (Gbps) fixed-line and mobile connection network covering all people by 2020. It is designed to improve infrastructure by upgrading the speed of internet connections to Gbps, 40 times faster than the current one, so that high quality contents such as immersive 3D, 4D and holograms can be watched without interruption,” Kim said. 

The project is not only aimed at improving network infrastructure, but it also contains a prescription for promoting shared growth of the whole of the IT ecosystem, embracing the strengthening of software platforms and content, said the ETRI president, adding that it contains a roadmap for each of the four IT segments °™  content, platform, terminal, and network °™  by recognizing them as collaboration values for synergetic effects, not seeing them individually. 

“If the project is successful, state-of-the-art technologies that have appeared in SF movies will be realized,” Kim said. 

The project has a vision of rising to a global ICT power by 2020 with the goal of spearheading “smart” innovation using the “smart” IT environment. 

It aims at the realization of an environment of Generation-5 (5G) mobile communications connections in which individual users can enjoy Gbps-grade mobile services without space and time limitations. From the technological perspective, they will be able to receive services in a way they can watch, hear, and feel vividly. To this end, the project calls for the creation of a mobile environment for individual users to be fitted with 8K ultra high definition (UHD)-class dimension and immersion under the Gbps communication infrastructure. 

The project will aim at producing digital holograms, 8K-class quality, real-time games and contents based on the individual user’ s five senses. It will target the handling and stocking up of immersive media services for 20,000 simultaneous connections, transmitting up to 1Gbps wireless access per user and up to 10Gbps fixed-line access and reproducing immersive UHD-class 3D immersive media and digital hologram contents. 

Riding on the widespread use of smart IT gadgets in the late 2000s, the Apple and Google camps lead in global innovation based on their own platforms. Apple and Google are implementing strategies to move toward smart TV and smart automobiles, going beyond smartphones. Korean companies lead the global smartphone manufacturing field based on their hardware capabilities. A combination of platform-based foreign players and hardware-oriented Korean companies is forecast to secure the lead in the future of immersive media technology and market. As a result, the project calls for Korea to spearhead the innovation of all areas of the future ICT ecosystem, including network, terminal, platform, and content. 

In a related development, the government said it intends to demonstrate the technologies, to be commercialized under the Giga-KOREA project, during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games under a scheme to dominate the global IT market down the road. 

A survey conducted and released by the ETRI showed that the project will have an effect of R&D-invested production induction worth 1 trillion won and commercialization-related production induction worth 67 trillion won. It will have an effect of creating 10,000 jobs related to R&D investments and 410,000 jobs related to technology commercialization. The project will also bring about 500 billion won in profit-making related to R&D investments and 27 trillion won in profit-making related to commercialization.