South Korea Wants 1Gig for AllSouth Korea Wants 1Gig for All

Elsewhere: DirecTV adds 289,000 subscribers, Netflix cuts CBS deal, while Knology expands in Alabama and Georgia

February 23, 2011

1 Min Read
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South Korea's move to test Internet connections that provide speeds 200 times faster than most U.S. broadband services leads today's cable news roundup.

  • Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) may have something big in mind with its coming trials of 1Gbit/s speeds over fiber, but South Korea has much, much bigger ideas in mind with a project that envisions connecting every home in the country to 1Gig Internet links by the end of 2012. An initial government-led pilot project has about 1,500 homes wired up with those speeds, with customers paying less than US$27 each. (See Google Delays Fiber Picks and Googlemania!.)

  • DirecTV Group Inc. (NYSE: DTV) shares jumped about 3 percent this morning on news that it added 289,000 subscribers during the fourth quarter -- its best performance in a decade.

  • Challenging DirecTV's 3-D play, Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) flipped the switch today on Xfinity 3D. (See Comcast Tunes Up 3DTV.)

  • A day after Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) challenged Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX)'s Web video streaming business, Netflix returned fire by cutting a reported $200 million deal that gives it rights to stream Frasier, Star Trek and other CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) properties. (See Amazon Fires Shot at Netflix's Bow .)

  • Competitive cable overbuilder Knology Inc. (Nasdaq: KNOL) picked up some small systems in Alabama and Georgia with its $30 million acquisition of Cobridge Broadband. (See Knology Reports Q4.)

    — Steve Donohue, Special to Light Reading Cable

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