South Korea's government plans to digitally network 10 million homes, in the largest project of its kind

The South Korean government has announced that will start laying the groundwork for 10 million digitally networked homes, in what is expected to be the largest such project in the world.

According to a report in the Korea Times, the project run by the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) will begin in a month's time and will be completed in 2007.

The government will foot about a third of the estimated $31m (£18.5m) cost, with the rest coming from technology partners in the private sector.

Next month, the ministry will select two consortia consisting of broadcasting, construction and two or more digital home appliance firms to build the infrastructure and manufacture devices.

Each group will then select two or more of seven urban areas, which include cities like Seoul, Pusan and Inchon, in which to build. The areas were selected for their high Internet adoption rate and availability of terrestrial digital TV service, according to the report. When completed in 2007, families will be able to access a range of online services from smart home appliances as well as computers.

The Korean government predicts that the global home network market will grow annually by 19 percent, reaching $162bn (£97bn) in 2010. But in Korea, the growth will be an even faster 32 percent a year, reaching $23.5bn in 2010, said the Korea Times.

The Korean government has earmarked digital home networks as an area that it can take the industrial lead in globally, according to previous reports.

The huge Korean conglomerates of LG, Samsung and Hyundai have also invested heavily in smart home networks.

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