South Korea Sets Goal of One Gigabit Per Second Internet Speeds

South Korea's new national broadband plan set the goal of 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) Internet connections to be commonplace by 2012, according to BBC News.

Even without this goal, South Korea already has among the fastest average connection speeds in the world.

1Gbps connections will allow South Koreans to:

• Download Tolstoy's War and Peace in 0.002 seconds
• Download a 45-minute album in 0.05 seconds
• Download a 90-minute HD film in 3 minutes 36 seconds

In order to catch up with South Korea's current average download speed of 34.1Mbps, it will take the United States 60 years, according to Speed Matters' 2010 Report on Internet Speeds in all 50 States. The U.S. is currently ranked 25th in the world for average download speed.

Find out how your Internet speed compares to Korea and the U.S. average download speed with Speed Matters' speed test.

What would you do with gigabit internet speeds? (BBC)

2010 Report on Internet Speeds in All 50 States - Report Center (Speed Matters)

Speed Matters Speed Test (Speed Matters)