South Korea already has the fastest overall broadband speeds in the world and they are already working towards the next generation of broadband. SK Broadband provides gigabit capable fiber to over 40% of households and has plans to spend over $900 million to increase that to 80% of households by 2020.
The company also just kicked off a trial of next generation fiber technology to improve bandwidth delivery to customers. Customers today have an option of 1 Gbps service. SK Broadband just launched a trial with Nokia in an apartment building to increase end-user bandwidth. They are doing this by combining the current GPON technology with both XGSPON and NG PON2 to increase the overall bandwidth to the apartment complex from 2.5 Gbps to 52.5 Gbps. This configuration allows a customer to run three bandwidth-heavy devices simultaneously with each having access to a separate 833 Mbps symmetrical data path. This particular combination of technologies may never be widely implemented since the company is also considering upgrades to bring 10 Gbps residential service.
The big question is why SK Broadband thinks customers need this much bandwidth? One reason is gaming and over 25 million people, or a little over half the population of the country partake in online gaming today. There is not another country that is even a close second to the gaming craze there. The country also has embraced 4K video and a large percentage of programming there uses the format, which can require data streams as large as 15 Mbps for each stream.
But those applications don’t alone the kind of bandwidth that the company is considering. The architect of the SK Broadband network cites the ability to deliver 360-degree virtual reality as the reason for the increase in bandwidth. At today’s compression techniques this could require data streams as much as 6 times larger than a 4K video stream, or 90 Mbps.
What is 360-degree virtual reality and how does it differ from regular virtual reality? First, the 360-degree refers to the ability to view the virtual reality landscape in any direction. That means the user can look behind, above and below them in any direction. A lot of virtual reality already has this capability. The content is shot or created to allow viewing in any direction and the VR user can look around them. For example, a 360 virtual reality view of a skindiver would allow a user to follow an underwater object as the diver approaches, and look back to watch is as they pass by.
But the technology that SK Broadband sees coming is 360-degree immersive VR. With normal virtual reality a user can look at anything within sight range at a given time. But with normal virtual reality the viewer moves with the skindiver – it’s strictly a viewing experience to see whatever is being offered. Immersive virtual reality let’s a user define the experience – in an immersive situation the VR user can interact with the environment. They might decide to stay at a given place longer, or pick up a seashell to examine it.
SK Broadband believes that 360-degree VR will soon be a reality and they think it will be in big demand. The technology trial with Nokia is intended to support this technology by allowing up to three VR users at the same location to separately enter a virtual reality world together yet each have their on experience. Immersive VR will allow real gaming. It will let a user enter a 3D virtual world and interact in any manner they wish – much like the games played today with game machines.
This is a great example of how broadband applications are developed to fit the capacity of networks. South Korea is the most logical place to develop high-bandwidth applications since they have so many customers using gigabit connections. Once a mass of potential users is in place then developers can create big-bandwidth content. It’s a lot harder for that to happen in the US since the percentage of those with gigabit connections is still tiny. However, an application developer in South Korea can get quick traction since there is a big pool of potential users.