Korea will push ahead with its nationwide Ubiquitous City, a plan to cover whole regions with wireless Internet connections and hook up each and every household to the network.
The Ministry of Ination and Communication and the Ministry of Construction and Transportation announced on Monday (Nov. 21) that they will a joint task force for the next-generation city development project, which will provide home networking and wireless internet access to the region.
Several local governments including Seoul, Busan and Incheon have expressed their intentions to implement the U-City project individually, but this is the first time the central government has made a pledge on the plan.
So far, six regions in South Korea are planning to invest for their own U-City projects. But there will be no big confusion between the cities because they are all participating in our forum, the Ministry of Ination and Communication official Kang Joong-hyup said.
Kang also said that the task force will start to discuss the establishment of a legal system for the U-Cities beginning next year.
In addition to the wireless broadband Internet connection, the U-City project will furnish homes with unified systems such as electronic locks, integrated videoconferencing and videophones. Also, public services such as bus, subways and stores will be managed by a single smart card under the system.
Korea is not the only country where such a concept is being discussed. The Californian city of Mountain View last week decided to accept an offer for free wi-fi wireless Internet services for its 70,000 residents, provided by the U.S. Internet search engine firm Google.
