SEOUL (Reuters) - Aiming to hook up every household to the Internet, South Korea unveiled plans on Wednesday for telecom companies to invest $10.9 billion in high-speed broadband networks by 2005.

South Korea, already the most wired country in the world with 10 million high-speed Internet connections in its population of 48 million, said all households will be able to get fast-speed Internet access by 2005.

The Ministry of Information and Communication said it will boost that number by 35 percent to 13.5 million households.

Internet-savvy Koreans spend more time in front of computers than watching television, clicking the mouse to trade shares, order pizza, buy clothes or even consult a doctor.

"I log onto the Internet about two to three hours almost every day to play online games," said Hwang Hwa-sun, 23, a worker at Korea Securities Depository, adding his family also uses it.

"I also like to use the Internet for shopping cosmetics and clothes. My sister reads newspapers from the internet, while my father uses it to play a Korean card game," she said.

Helped by the rapid spread of the Internet, online stock trading accounts for 65 percent of total turnover on the Korea Stock Exchange, ministry data showed. That compares with only 3.8 percent in Japan and 7.6 percent in Taiwan.

KT Corp 30200.KS , South Korea's largest telecom company, and other Internet service providers (ISPs), will fund the new planned investment, which includes $210 billion in government loans, through 2005, the ministry said.

INTERNET-SAVVY

South Korean ISPs are building Internet backbones using rights of way along the nation's highways, power and telephone lines and natural gas pipelines. Years ago, South Korea installed an extensive cable television network, which will provide the key "last mile" connection from the backbone to the home.

South Korea now has 10 million high-speed Internet lines, accounting for 21 percent of its total population.

If slower dial-up access is counted, then almost 60 percent of South Koreans regularly surf the Internet, the ministry said.

The country has spent $9 billion on building Internet infrastructure since June 1998, when Korea Thrunet Co KOREA.O , now the country's third largest ISP, launched a high-speed Internet service via cable network.

The ministry said South Korea would have 13.5 million subscribers of broadband Internet services by 2005, with an average data rate of 20 megabits per second.

At that rate, it takes one second to transmit the equivalent of 370 newspaper pages, the ministry said.

KT Corp, the country's largest ISP, had 4.6 million broadband subscribers, or 45.8 percent of the domestic broadband market as of October 10, the ministry said.

Hanaro Telecom Inc 33630.KQ , the number-two ISP, had 2.86 million users, or 28.6 percent, followed by Thrunet, which had 1.3 million or 13.1 percent.

The ministry data included broadband subscribers of smaller regional ISPs, which offer high-speed Internet services using leased lines from larger operators such as KT.