Korean government evaluates the quality of broadband

KOREA--The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) announced last week that it would undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the nation's broadband services to provide quality information on communication services and balance the market amongst communication service providers.

According to the KCC, the exercise aims to safeguard user confidence in broadband services and also to establish a standard by which the service providers have to abide by.

Quality information on communication services has rarely been provided to users, in spite of the country's well-established broadband penetration rate. The level of quality compensation has also come under fire for being unrealistic..

The quality evaluation plan for broadband comprises two categories--technology and user satisfaction. The evaluation index for technology will measure both upload and download speeds, delay time and loss factor, while the evaluation index for user satisfaction appraises the connecting rate of termination call, with plus points going to providers serving users with written contracts at each stage, from subscription to termination.

The quality evaluation will first entail a survey covering both urban and rural areas. In urban areas (8 metropolis and provinces), it will include 14 out of 20 services provided by seven communication providers, involving an estimated 2,800 users. In rural areas (counties in 8 provinces), it will be focused on ADSL service, involving some 400 users.

A second step sees a deeper evaluation covering service qualities of ADSL or VSL in urban areas, with 950 users affected..

KCC's findings from the evaluation will be eventually released to the public.

Hyo-Jeoung Kim of ZDNet Korea reported from Seoul.