HOW TO: Open an internet account in Korea

Ras called to set up internet for our apartment today. It’s through Megapass Ntopia (English version) and was really easy to do. Dial 100. (Yes, it’s a three digit phone number to a call center in Seoul.) Press 8 for English, then 1 for “New Accounts.” You’ll talk to an English operator that will instruct you to fax or email a copy of your Alien Registration Card or passport to Megapass. Afterwards, call back and the operator will walk you through opening an account, including setting up a username and password.

A one year contract is 37,620 won per month ($40 USD). The installation fee of 30,000 won was waived. There was a discount of 5%, which must be paid back if the contract is broken before the year ends. For this price, we’ll get download and upload speeds of up to 100Mbps! Even if our actual speeds are half of that number, that’s still fast.
Ras called today at 11:00 am and they’ll be here to hook it up between 9-11 am tomorrow. Our apartment building is already hooked up for high speed internet, so it just needs to be turned on. A month before moving into our apartment, we had already decided we’d get the fastest internet that money can buy. So, you can imagine how excited I am to get an internet line that’s faster than a T3 connection!