cribers. Subsequently, Softbank announced that it would expand Japan Telecom's operations into the resi- dential market by leasing lines from NTT and offering service at a very small markup over the wholesale price of the NTT lines. Given the results in the United States for entrants who adopted such a strategy and Soft- bank's demonstrated success in attacking the residential voice market through VoIP delivered over Yahoo-BB's DSL lines, Softbank's announced strategy is puzzling at best. 32 Korea Although Korea's telecommunication sector has been opened to competi- tion, the government has been more concerned with developing a high- speed infrastructure than with establishing competition in traditional nar- Telecom Reform in Other Countries rowband services. In 1993 it introduced a plan for the national "informa- tion infrastructure." Two years later, it published a three-stage plan to de- velop a high-speed infrastructure with government funding, and by 2000 it had completed a nationwide backbone of optical-fiber and ATM switches. 33 Much of this backbone was built by the country's electric utility company, but it is available to all telecom carriers who wish to offer high-speed ser- vices. In addition, all new apartment buildings have built advanced high- speed distribution capabilities into their buildings, including fiber optics and even DSLAMs. 34 The incumbent telephone company in Korea, Korea Telecom, continues to dominate the traditional telephony services. As of February 2003, Korea Telecom had 96 percent of local telephone lines, including ISDN lines.35 The principal competition in the Korean telecom sector is found in the broadband services market. The three major competitors are Korea Tele- com, Hanaro, and Thrunet, which account for 86 percent of broadband subscribers, but there are several other competitors (see table 9-5). Each major competitor has built a substantial infrastructure, and each has access to the electric utility's infrastructure. 36 Indeed, between 2000 and 2002, Hanaro, Thrunet, an