Just read the latest GLORAID update:

The first major step of the six-country GLORIAD effort to establish a lightpath-enabled ring around the northern hemi-sphere is being taken in a few short
weeks – thanks to the efforts of partners at the Korea Institute of Science and
Technology Information (KISTI) and to the substantial funding commitment obtained
from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Korea.

Academic network research always leads the market in demand on bandwidth. I was told Japan academic consume 3x more international bandwidth than all the commercial (including Yahoo! BB). Scary huh?