Megapass on Top in Broadband Market

The high-speed Internet service market is always in intensive competition in Korea, one of world’s most wired countries, but KT’s Megapass has been holding a firm grip on the No.1 spot there since the turning of the new millennium.

Megapass snatched the top of the market in June, 2000 ― one year after the telecom provider started the service. In the same year, it surpassed the one million subscriber mark in September, before growing five-fold in January 2003. As of April this year, Megapass had 6.6 million subscribers, taking up 44.2 percent of the market.

Beating most expectations, Korea’s broadband market is already in the saturation phase. An emerging market just years ago, Korea’s high-speed Internet market is already regarded as a red ocean. Under such circumstances, KT is doing its utmost to offer customers the best services and perks.

In an attempt to imprint the product as an unrivaled service to tech-savvy Korean customers, KT is featuring a variety of added-value features, supported by intensified after-sales services.

Under the catchphrase of “Wonderful Life Partner,” KT is in full force to provide various services to appeal to various consumers.

A group of female engineers is working in its pre- and after-sales service departments for females, children and senior subscribers. Customers can also designate technicians for their services, and those who have more time restrictions during the week can take advantage of an extended service operation time on weekends.

The company offers Megadoctor ― a spyware-protection program ― and an identification number-checking service, both free of charge. It also provides filtering software like “Clean-i” and “Timecodi” at reasonable monthly fees.

KT is the first Korean provider to offer the Fiber to the Home (FTTH), a 100-percent optical cable service. Unlike the very high-data rate digital subscriber line, often dubbed VDSL, and other broadband services, FTTH directly links the provider and its subscribers using fiber cables, the ultimate form of high-speed Internet service.

The company expects the cutting-edge service to open a new era in the industry by boosting both the quality for Internet subscribers, as well as promoting the development of the business.

KT has ambitious plans to substitute the FTTH service for all other current Internet services nationwide, intensifying the country’s IT competitiveness and also offering a solution for the “digital divide,” an information inequity between urban and rural areas.