▲ (From left) Shin Su-jeong, Head of KT Enterprise Division, and Lee Su-jeong, CEO of Savills Korea



Joint construction of a new 9,000km submarine optical cable
Connecting six major Asia-Pacific countries including Korea and Singapore

KT and Savills Korea sign an MOU for the construction of submarine optical cables in the Asia-Pacific region to strengthen their market leadership.

KT and Savills Korea announced on the 27th that they signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at KT's Songpa office to jointly promote the project and will build a new submarine optical cable in the Asia-Pacific (hereinafter A-Pacific) region.

The detailed business plan includes jointly promoting the attraction of global cloud service providers and telecommunications operators, the construction of submarine cables, and post-completion operation management.

Based on this MOU, the two companies will actively pursue a project to build and operate a new 9,000km submarine optical cable connecting six major countries in the Asia-Pacific region: Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore.

Based on decades of accumulated know-how, KT provides consulting services across the entire business, including the design, construction, and operation of new submarine optical cables, and also acts as a strategic investor.

Savills Korea has agreed to handle asset management services, including business planning and execution, attracting investors, contracting, and licensing.

Submarine fiber optic cables are a key facility for communication between continents and countries separated by the sea.

data transmitted between countries 90% passes through submarine fiber optic cables.

The need for the expansion and stable operation of submarine fiber optic cables is being emphasized due to the rapidly increasing trend of international transmission of high-capacity data, such as corporate digital transformation (DX), the spread of cloud services, the popularization of over-the-top (OTT) services, and video conferencing.

According to global telecommunications equipment manufacturer Cisco, annual global internet usage is expected to increase by 220% from 1.5 zettabytes (ZB) in 2017 to 4.8 ZB in 2022.

Lee Soo-jung, CEO of Savills Korea, said, “The MOU with KT regarding this submarine cable project is the fruit of our continuous efforts to expand our real estate service sector,” adding, “We expect Savills Korea’s global network and KT’s outstanding data communication technology to create synergy.”

Shin Su-jeong, Head of KT’s Enterprise Division, stated, “As demand for DX-based cloud services and OTT expands not only domestically but across Asia, the submarine cable market is expected to grow further,” adding, “By jointly constructing the Asian submarine fiber optic cable with Savills, we will continue to strengthen our market leadership in submarine fiber optic cables and international data transmission.”