KT Connects East Asia with World’s Largest Submarine Cable Network

The Asia Pacific Gateway is a network of 11,000-kilometer-long and 6,000-meter-underwater cables connecting nine Asian countries including South Korea, China, Japan and Southeast Asian nations. (image: KT)

SEOUL, Oct. 23 (Korea Bizwire) – KT, a telecommunications company in South Korea, announced on October 21 that it launched an Asia Pacific Gateway Network Operation Center to manage the world’s largest cross-border submarine cable network at KT Center in Busan. The Korea’s leading telecom company plans to work as a control tower when network problems arise.

The Asia Pacific Gateway is a network of 11,000-kilometer-long and 6,000-meter-underwater cables connecting nine Asian countries including South Korea, China, Japan and Southeast Asian nations. A consortium consisting of 13 companies from nine countries such as KT, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, NTT, StarHub and Facebook leads the project.

The rate of Internet subscribers in those nations accounts for 32 percent in the world’s total users of 2.8 billion, and 69 percent in Asian countries of 1.3 billion subscribers, according to a data reported by Internet World Stats.

Once the installation is completed at the end of 2015, South Korea is expected to become a communications hub in the Northeast Asian region. Also the submersible network will boast twice faster speeds than any other network in the world, with the data transmission speed at 38.4 terabits per second.

The communications service provider expects to earn about 1.1 billion won, or about US$1 million, every year by operating the center, which will open another door in the global communications market.

KT Submarine, an affiliate of the company, constructing the network, expects to make 45-billion-won sales by the construction and 11.5-billion-won sales from maintenance work. “It is important that South Korea leads the network in the region where the world’s highest Internet traffic is generated,” said Hwang Chang-kyu, CEO of the company.

KT plans to expand its influence in the global market from Asia to the Pacific. It signed an agreement with a global communications company on the 21th to build up a 14,000-kilimeter trans-Pacific submarine cable network called New Cross Pacific connecting South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan and the United States.

The Asia Pacific Gateway is a network of 11,000-kilometer-long and 6,000-meter-underwater cables connecting nine Asian countries including South Korea, China, Japan and Southeast Asian nations. (image: KT)

By Veronica Huh (veronicah@koreabizwire.com)