KT Opens Massive Undersea Cable System for Preparation of Winter Olympics

Before the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, South Korea’s telecom provider KT has opened and begun operations of a massive undersea cable system called “Asia Pacific Gateway (APG)” connecting nine Asian countries including Korea, Japan and China. The company is also planning to open a “New Cross Pacific (NCP)” international submarine cable connecting not only Korea, Japan and China but also the United States next year. Therefore, it will be able to transmit the Olympic Games around the world in various contents, such as 4K ultra high definition (UHD) video and virtual reality (VR).

KT said on November 9, “The company has opened the 11,000-kilometer APG undersea cable that connects nine countries – South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia.” The fiber-optic cable system has the channel speeds of 100 Gbps and is capable of transferring data at a speed of 60 terabits per second.

It has the highest speeds among submarine cables now being operated across the world, and it allows to transmit 12 million HD video on demand (VOD) per second, according to KT.

KT plans to expand its undersea cable networks to North America by opening of a 14,000-kilometer NCP submarine network cable that stretches from South Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan to the U.S. next year.

Oh Sung-mok, head of KT's network division, said, “Once both the APG and NCP submarine cables are opened, we will be able to transmit various contents, including 4K UHD video, VR and hologram, throughout the world via the international undersea cable systems.”