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u-Korea: Anytime, Anywhere, Any Device

Striving to keep its IT lead, Seoul appears anxious to create a nation of gadget freaks -- In today�s South Korea, everyone from government agencies to telecommmunications carriers to equipment vendors is chanting in unison what may well be the new national mantra: �anytime, anywhere, and on any device.� The word ubiquitous has become just that. Creating a �u-Korea� is the goal in Seoul�s aggressive push to stay in the global vanguard of information and communications technology. Behind this government-led drive is a deep-seated fear that South Korea�s IT boom will slow as the country nears saturation. Already, South Korea counts 35 million mobile subscribers out of a total population of only 47 million. Broadband penetration is the highest in the world, with 12 million high-speed Internet subscribers. �Korea has entered into a mature period characterized by slow growth,� said Yong-Kyung Lee, president and CEO of telecom operator KT, in a keynote address delivered at the u-Korea Vision Conference 2005 on Wednesday. Working in close coordination with carriers and major vendors like Samsung and LG, government agencies like the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) and the National Computerization Agency (NCA) are pushing hard to move the ICT sector into new growth areas.

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