2 Trillion Project
There is now intense competition between global communications equipment suppliers Nokia, Huawei, Ericsson, and Alcatel-Lucent for the national disaster safety communications network project, which will be the first trial of its kind in the world.
The winner of the government project of South Korea, which is an IT powerhouse, will be recognized for its technologies. Moreover, major countries like the U.S., the U.K., and Canada are planning to build a disaster safety communications network using Public Safety-LTE (PS-LTE), which was already adopted by Korea. Therefore, the reason for fierce competition seems to lie in the belief that it could be a test-bed for the suppliers’ capabilities in the PS-LTE market, which is still at early stage, to win the order of the Korean project.
According to sources in the government and communications industry on Jan. 25, the national disaster safety communications network project is estimated to be worth 2 trillion won (US$1.85 billion). However, the size of the project is expected to increase to more than 3 trillion won (US$2.8 billion) if 10 year-maintenance costs are included. So competition between global communications equipment suppliers for the project is heating up.
They are actively seeking to win the project by coming up with a plan to establish a research and development center in Korea related to PS-LTE. Ericsson-LG, which is collaborating with Nokia Networks and Motorola, held a briefing in the nation early this month, showed off its technology, and promised to strengthen its cooperation with local companies.
Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent are scheduled to showcase PS-LTE technology in the country on Jan. 28 and 30, respectively. Each of them is going to hold an event to explain their technology and present a strategy for enhancing cooperation. In particular, the Chinese firm has already started to supply a significant proportion of equipment for a backbone network to SKT, KT, and LG U+.
Among local companies, Samsung Electronics is likely to compete with foreign enterprises, with an emphasis that it can supply communications equipment and terminals at the same time.
Related small and mid-sized firms are also paying a lot of attention to the project. If the supply of 200,000 terminals and various types of communications equipment and exports in the future are taken into account, the project can be a new blue ocean.
Currently, both the U.S., and the U.K. are working to construct a national disaster safety communications network using LTE by 2020. Canada is also planning to build the network in the same way. Korea is scheduled to complete the construction of the communications network by the end of 2017, earlier than any other country.