I have coupled telephone, Cable-TV and Internet Access because large conglomerates like SKT and KT sell them as an attractive package and now even adding cell phone service, plus more : if the whole family use the same cell phone carrier . before anything, here is the conclusion first : it all depends on where you work and live . at work your company should have it set up so this page will deal with domestic telephone, TV, Cable-TV and internet service providers .

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[ Phase i – TV ]

the first thing you notice when setting up a home in South Korea is that there is merely a hand-ful of TV channels . this is because TV broadcast started in the gruesome days following the Korean War and soon followed by a military dictatorship regime : TV was propaganda and a dangerous source for dreaded revolution uprising that it was regulated heavily, and protective law was put into stone it take more than beaurocracy to jump-start a nation-wide TV channel . for example, the latest SBS Seoul Broadcasting Station had to start from central Metropolitan Capital of Seoul . one loose end was to open up literally a hundred cable channels while still keeping government-ish monopoly-ish hold of the few TV channels .

add to this : the Korean Penninsula, especially the East is a mountainous range and most cities developed within has some form of mountain or hills, thus most household has been subscribed to Cable connection in place of antenna reception since the 80’s . although this was connection-only without Cable Channels yet, this has been easier than other countries because this is a small territory where people gather to live in packed cities .

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[ Phase ii – Cable ]

actual Cable Channels in South Korea slowly jump-started mid-90’s with a few basic channels eventually incorporating international channels to over 50 .

Cable TV in South Korea is offered by one local company in different regions, but with almost the same channel-contents, meaning : there is no competition among cable providers – just SkyLife satellite TV and TV service offered by central internet providers .

thus started the Cable-TV shopping bonanza where, for the first time in shopping culture of the Koreas, consumers were offered n0-questions-asked Exchanges and Refunds . although this was purely due to the characteristics of Cable shopping where no one would buy without actually touching the product and for competition between channels . up until this moment, shoppers at underground black-markets to even the leading department stores had to endure criticism from vendors when they did not buy after inquiring on products . the larger shopping channels could endure such service for they were mostly run my conglomerates which had profitted from other sectors .

this unheard-of practice soon became the norm throughout newly-weds, who by tradition bought virtually everything from scratch when setting up house . and soon baton-touched over onto internet Shopping malls which soon followed .

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[ Phase iii – Sky TV and internet ]

the dawn of Satellite Channel coincided with the corners of South Korea speedilly getting linked onto internet cables .

over the Millennium : from downtown Seoul to beach-side resorts in Busan(Pusan) high-rise apartments sprang up . and as expensive as they are, these miracle of buildings have state-of-the-art phone lines, TV-Cables, network cables, AND security built-in . without a doubt THEY have the f-a-s-t-e-s-t domestic Internet speed in the whole wide World, where you can download a normal-crisp movie in less than 2 minutes !

to give you an idea of incredible internet speed in South Korea – although mostly taken for granted and some even wanting more – the fastest domestic internet connection on Earth are around developoed countries in Asia and then Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, and South Korea as the leading nation has twice the speed of the second fastest Hong Kong and third-ranking Japan .

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[ Phase iv – internet Phone and Package Service Providers ]

as more aspects of life is done on the internet, all sorts of inter-twingled packages are being offered by sheer competition that you will be rewarded a cash advance of more-or-less W150,000 if you subscribe to a 2-year contract !!!

I cannot list all for much is starting and ending by the month so it best to ask your neighbor what services are offered by which company .

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[ Package Service Providers ]

below is an example of services provided by Hanaro :

Hanaro Telecom which started in 1997 as a telephone company changed the company name to SK Broadband effective September 2008 .

Company Name – Product – down/up speed – monthly subscription
Hanaro Hanafos Optic LAN — 100M/100M – W26,700
Hanaro Hanafos Premium VDSL 20M/ 6M – W33,820
Hanaro Hanafos Premium Cable 20M/768K – W30,600
Hanaro Hanafos Speed VDSL — 10M/ 6M – W25,200
Hanaro Hanafos Speed ADSL — 8M/640K – W25,200
Hanaro Hanafos Speed Cable — 10M/768K – W25,200

LG PowerCom Xpeed Optic LAN 100M/100M – W28,000
LG PowerCom Xpeed Prime — 10M/800K – W28,000

KT MegaPass Optic Ntopia 100M/100M – W30,600
KT MegaPass Special VDSL II 50M/ 4M – W41,250
KT MegaPass Special VDSL I 20M/ 4M – W38,700
KT MegaPass Premium xDSL 13M/ 4M – W37,000
KT MegaPass Lite xDSL,BWLL 4M/ 4M – W28,500
KT MegaPass Lite Satelite — 1M/64K – W28,500

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some other providers are :

  • HanaPhone
  • myLG070
  • HanaTV
  • myLGtv
  • MegaTV

and it gets more complicating when cell phone subscription discount is offered together with the above, where SKT or KT-only house-holds get further lucrative discounts 0o0

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[ Customer Support and Repair ]

as you can see from the variety of services concerning land-line telephone, TV, Cable-TV and internet connection, the whole scene is inter-twiningly complicated as plans change and more service come into place that subscription management and calling for repair is about the only area where you cannot sign up on-Line but instead have to call-in .

after-which, normal procedure would reserve a technician to remotely check your connection or if that does not work come visit you on the next business day, but chances are they will find a geographically working order to visit you the same day .

and sheer competition is the same reason why there are so many kinds of service and why they will try to repair as soon as possible – for unless you work and/or live in the most remote areas, you will probably have three-or-so choices of companies .

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– March 2009, Korea Tech BLog –

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( Summer 2013 Update ) as communication conglomerates offer more package deals in the SmartPhone age, an example of regional connection of all integrating Cell Phone, Cable TV AND internet connection in the classic American G.i. haven of iTaewon at
http://itaewonblog.com/cable-tv-and-internet-connection/

 

Cable TV & Satellite channel guide – May 2014 (again CnM is your regional Cable TV provider for metropolitan region around the Capital, SK is the first cellular carrier and Olleh is from KT, the local telephone company also the oldest internet provider who also bought-in Sky Life satellite):

  • CnM Cable TV YongSan ≫download≪ Korean & English
  • SK B.TV ≫link
  • Olleh (qook) TV Live ≫link
  • Olleh Sky Life satellite ≫link