KT announced on the 26th that it has built the 'International Submarine Cable Complex (KT Submarine Cable Complex)'.

Currently, submarine cables with a total capacity of 1,500 Tbps and a length of 1.3 million km have been constructed around the world, and 954 terrestrial countries are connecting their land-based communication networks with submarine cables. Among them, KT manages, controls, and operates seven submarine cables connecting major countries such as the United States, Japan, and China, with a total capacity of 179 Tbps, or approximately 12%.

Additionally, KT is responsible for 80% of the international traffic generated in Korea, and is the only global 'traffic relay operator (IPX Provider, IP Exchange Provider)' in Korea that relays and transmits international traffic between countries.

To this end, KT has integrated the functions of the International Submarine Cable Integrated Control Center (SNOC, Submarine Network Operation Center), which transmits and receives international traffic and controls the submarine cable network, and the Global Telecommunication Service Center (GTSC, Global Telecommunication Service Center), which provides services such as international calls, roaming, internet, and broadcasting, into the International Submarine Cable Complex.

Typically, when a content company located in the United States transmits video to a telecommunications company in Hong Kong using a third-country traffic relay operator, the traffic is transmitted to a land station located on the coast of the third country, and then this traffic is then transferred to a service processing facility located inland, where it has to go through the process of reconfiguring the route once more before being transmitted to Hong Kong, which inevitably results in a delay of about 10ms or more.

Accordingly, KT announced that it is capable of providing an ultra-low latency traffic relay service that reduces the delay of international traffic received in the United States to 1ms. This is because the international submarine cable complex can process service and designate new routes simultaneously in the same space as reception, reducing delays caused by global traffic relay operators.

A KT official said that the international traffic relay time of the International Submarine Cable Complex is the best among the 25 global traffic relay operators around the world, and predicted that the advantage of ultra-low latency will greatly contribute to attracting domestic construction of data centers of global companies that require fast network connections and to leaping forward as the number one traffic relay operator.



KT has introduced the 'Submarine Cable Vessel Surveillance System,' an enhanced submarine cable integrated protection solution, to the International Submarine Cable Complex to reliably transmit game footage and data from important events such as the Olympics and World Cup to the world.

KT's submarine cable vessel surveillance system is a solution that uses four 'dedicated submarine cable surveillance vessels' located in Busan, Geoje, and Jeju to transmit territorial waters images captured by CCTV and maritime conditions analyzed by surveillance radar to the international submarine cable complex using LTE and satellite communications.

The International Submarine Cable Complex monitors information transmitted by the 'Submarine Cable Vessel Surveillance System' 24 hours a day. Commercial ships and fishing boats approaching within 4km of a submarine cable are notified by radio of the risk of cable disconnection, and when they approach within 500m, a nearby submarine cable monitoring vessel is dispatched to guide them to move.

In addition, KT is providing the 'Submarine Cable Alarm System', a display device that displays the submarine cable route based on GPS and informs the distance between the submarine cable and the vessel, to approximately 2,200 fishing boats that mainly engage in fishing activities near the submarine cable route to protect the submarine cable.

KT predicted that the submarine cable vessel monitoring system and submarine cable alarm system will be able to drastically reduce the submarine cable failure rate, as submarine cable cuts caused by anchors during fishing boat activities and commercial ship mooring operations account for 94% of the causes of failures (underwater earthquakes 6.3%, simple failures 0.4%).

Meanwhile, KT presented its differentiated ICT technologies, including a demonstration of the ultra-low latency traffic transmission service between Korea and the United States on the International Submarine Cable Complex, submarine cable control technology, '5G Bus', and 'GiGAeyes' to 16 Central and South American IT ministers and vice ministers from 11 countries, including Costa Rica and Peru, attending the Busan ITU Telecom World on the 25th.

Oh Seong-mok, President of KT’s Network Division, said, “With the completion of a global communications forward base capable of relaying data with an ultra-low latency of 1ms, Korea’s ICT status has been elevated to a higher level,” and “KT has completed all preparations to ensure that viewers around the world can enjoy high-quality matches based on its 5G pilot service and international submarine cable complex.”