First, news out of Australia for a massive $30B ($47B in Australian dollars) broadband network - something I thought was on President Broadband's agenda but once Pelosi got a hold of the "stimulus" plan it turned into pork barrel projects instead of actual investments in this country. And yes, I'm jealous to see so many countries making real investments during this time, rather than butterfly museums. [Meanwhile South Korea is out to get 1 Gbps out to everyone in a $25 Billion program] This was a talking point for Obama but it seems to have died once Congress got involved. (sigh) GDP by country (2007)
- U.S. $13.8 B
- Aus $0.9 B
- South Korea $0.9 B
An interesting story here in the New York Times about South Korea that touches on the mobile "lifestyle"... judging from the past, (speaking of oligopoly) our few telecom companies who essentially seem to run what and when we will get such treats, should have us on the same path within 6-9 years. Notice a trend here in all our major industries? But the cool thing about being so behind those "not 1st world countries" is we can see our future far in advance.
Kim Hee-young, a statistics major at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, holds more or less her whole life in her hands. She wakes up in the morning when her mobile phone detonates an alarm, a loud Korean pop song. She checks weather forecasts on its screen before selecting what to wear. In the subway, Ms. Kim breezes through the turnstile after tapping the phone on a box that deducts the fare from a chip that contains a cash balance. While riding to school, she uses her mobile to check if a book has arrived at the library, slays aliens in a role-playing game, updates her Internet blog or watches TV. On campus, she and other students touch their mobiles to the electronic box by the door to mark their attendance. No need for roll call — the school’s server computer logs whether they are in or how late they are for the class. “If I leave my wallet at home, I may not notice it for the whole day,” said Ms. Kim, 21. “But if I lose my cellphone, my life will start stumbling right there in the subway.”- For Kim Hee-young, her mobile is the Swiss Army knife of the digital era. When she wants ice cream, she just asks her phone, and it shows a list of ice cream shops — complete with their menus and customer reviews — and the shortest way to get there.
- ... experts say South Korea, because of its high-speed wireless networks and top technology companies like Samsung and LG, is the test case for the mobile future.
- In 2005, South Korea became the first country in the world where mobiles could receive digital television signals — something Americans with their latest iPhones are just beginning to get used to. (not bad, only 3-4 years behind on this; we're making progress - thank you Apple!)
- Here, people sometimes even raise pets by phone, part of a global fad that began in the late 1990s with the Japanese invention of the Tamagotchi digital pet. You feed, walk and clean up behind the digi-dog that lives inside your mobile. If you neglect it, it sulks, withers and dies. (allright, some things we could do without)
- Among all these features, however, one enterprise the country’s wireless carriers are banking on is bringing cash and credit to the mobile phone, “thusmaking South Korea a walletless, cashless society,” said Ju Hee-sang, a manager for mobile cash payments at SK. (this will be a big trend for America "one day" - the question is how many more years will it take and whom will be the winners?) Each month last year, four million South Koreans bought music, videos, ring tones, online game subscriptions and articles from newspaper archives and other online items and charged them to their mobile phone bills, without going through any bank or credit card. The amount totaled 1.7 trillion won, or $1.4 billion at current exchange rates, last year. South Koreans have done this since 2000.
- From late last year, people use “T-money” — electronic cash stored and refilled in their SIM cards and other phone chips — as Ms. Kim does when she rides the subway and bus or buys snacks from a 7-Eleven at her neighborhood or the vending machines and cafeteria of her school. Instead of giving their children cash, parents can transfer money to their kids’ T-money account.
- T-money also makes mobile gift-giving possible. Someone can check into a mobile carrier’s online shop, buy an icon depicting a Starbucks Frappuccino and send it to his girlfriend’s phone. She can then go to the Starbucks, show the icon and get the drink. Each day, 70,000 mobile gifts — from Dunkin’ Donuts and pizza to underwear and cosmetics — are delivered through SK’s networks. (this is pretty darn cool stuff we could be doing with our tax dollars if the telecom oligarchs decide it's going to take another half decade, but we have Goldman, Citi, Bank of America executives to make rich - all in good time fellow peasants)
- Since 2000, South Koreans also use their mobile phones for Internet banking. For a fixed rate of 1,000 won a month, mobile phone users can check their bank accounts or send money, away from the A.T.M. or personal computer, and sitting, for example, in the taxi. Last year, Citibank began offering mobile-banking software for customers who use the iPhone (2000... 2008. 2000... 2008. 2000.... 2008 - we're almost catching up to these "non richest country on Earth" places - within a decade on this one)
- For South Koreans, efforts to replace credit cards and cash hit their stride in 2004, when banks began issuing integrated circuit chips that slot into the mobile phones and allow them to work like credit cards at A.T.M.’s. (2004 in South Korea? Should hit stateside in with splashy "innovative" advertisement around 2012) Instead of scratching or feeding the plastic card into the A.T.M., the customer places the phone on a tray-like reader.
- Mobile payment has been adopted in many parts of Europe and Asia, especially in Japan. (yo! some love here in America?)
- ...banks and wireless companies are still squabbling over who should pay for the cost of installing the chip reader.
