KT reports 100,000 new GiGA network subscribers

The number of new subscribers to KT’s new GiGA Internet network is on the rise, the mobile carrier said Sunday.

The total number of Korean households that have newly subscribed to KT’s Olleh GiGA Internet surpassed 100,000 within two months after its launch in October, according to the company.

KT is the first mobile carrier to launch the 1 Gbps network. With the service, users can download a 4GB full HD movie or 1,000 songs in 33 seconds.

With Olleh GiGA Wi-Fi, users can download large files at speeds three times faster. Olleh GiGA UHD TV also will provide ultra-high definition content with picture quality that is four times clearer than full HD.

“On various Internet communities, consumers are expressing their satisfaction with the speed of the new KT Internet and Wi-Fi,” said a spokesman at KT. “Inquiries about installation are on the rise at KT customer centers across the nation.”

According to the company’s analysis of subscribers during the past two months, the majority live in apartments in Seoul and nearby areas. Many of them are frequent users of high-definition and large video files, the company said.

The amount of data used by GiGA Internet subscribers was more than quadruple that of average Internet users, the company found.

“As consumers’ need for large, high-definition content is so generalized, it is crucial that the Internet network should be fast enough to meet the need,” said the spokesman.

KT, the nation’s second-largest mobile carrier, plans to aggressively invest in establishing the GiGA Internet infrastructure across the country by 2016 with an aim of providing maximum consumer access to the fast and stable Internet network.

The company said in October it plans to invest 4.5 trillion won ($4 billion) over the next three years on the GiGA Internet and attract 3 million users within five years.

“The rise in the number of GiGA Internet subscribers will provide a key opportunity for KT to change the paradigm of the communications industry,” said KT Chairman Hwnag Chang-gyu.
BY SONG SU-HYUN [ssh@joongang.co.kr]