Korean Job Discussion Forums

cellphone · Joined: 18 Feb 2004

Hi, moving into a new place tomorrow and Friday and will need to turn on DSL really soon. The building owner/manager says "Qrix" internet service is available, that's the only one she mentioned. Anyone know a thing about it at all? Generally quite fast or not? Overall service ok?

She said there's two payment plans. First one is no deposit but you pay 33,000 won connection fee and then 33,000 won every month for internet service month to month that's it.... The second plan is you pay 25,300 won per month and while there's no connection fee, you pay a penalty if you turn it off in less than a year. (The penalty is 10,000 for each month you are early, so if you use it for 3 months and there's 9 months remaining, you pay 90,000 won penalty). Because I'm foreigner I will pay her directly and then she will pay the company office.

What do you guys think about that at all? Bogus? Or about normal.

What is the going internet speed these days? The speed I've been getting at my place up till now has been pretty good at about 700 Kbps/sec (or download one 700mb file in about 30 - 35 mins.) Interesting thing is I've never had to pay for internet at all at this place. Just came with the unit. Hmmm...

Thanks for recs ahead of time.

jazblanc77 · Joined: 22 Feb 2004

Sounds like you have VDSL with those sort of transfer rates. I just have a regular broadband ADSL connection and my maxout point is always less than 200 kbps.

VDSL rocks and I will be getting it, hopefully, next time I move. Though, living in a small city, the service is less common, so I will have to see if my area has it yet once I move. *fingers crossed*

barrybrown · Joined: 18 Apr 2004

jazblanc77 · Joined: 22 Feb 2004

I live in a smaller city and what the OP will be paying is pretty much the norm here. Getting cable and internet for 18,700 is unheard of here.

cellphone · Joined: 18 Feb 2004

BryBrwn, please try to be more specific. The reason I asked the question is because I know nothing about connecting internet/dsl in this country, don't even know the names of companies. Also there's no way for me to tell if the payment plans that the building manager mentioned were actually accurate (or more simply, truthful) or what. I am living in Seoul not far from Sinchon area. You said it might be a rip off of the foreigner. Could you explain why? Am I not supposed to pay a connection fee? Is there something the building owner should be doing that she hasn't offered to? There's obviously no other specific information on this around anywhere, from what I can tell. Yah I agree 33,000/mo even 25 a month isn't that cheap, but what really kills me are the connection and/or penalty fees if one disconnects too early.

As for asking other tenants don't you think they'd just basically lie anyways or say "I dunno"? Besides only a couple others speak any english at all.

jazblanc77 · Joined: 22 Feb 2004

As far as I can tell, this plan that you may be buying into is not so out of the ordinary. It is pretty much the norm where I live.

Ignore the negative people on this board... they just want to bring you down.

If you want other companies, look into Megapass, Gigapass, Hanaro, and KT, and SK... they are probably the main providers

dogbert · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Location: Killbox 90210

I've been a Hanaro subscriber for years. They have a range of options at various prices. Never had a problem with service.

scarneck · Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Location: Seoul

I use 'Megapass', it's not bad, but I find that alot of sites come up with errors and I can't view them..strange, I can check them out at a PC bang but not home? no, they are not porn sites. something as simple as the home shopping network, (hsn.com) comes up with nothing. I called the rep and they said it wasn't their issue....any ideas?