KT and Savills Korea to build undersea cable to Singapore

Tech

Published: 07 Feb. 2022, 18:36 Updated: 07 Feb. 2022, 19:03

KT and Savills Korea to build undersea cable to Singapore

Shin Soo-jung, senior executive vice president at KT, at left, and Lee Soo-jeong, CEO of Savills Korea, pose for photo after signing an agreement to build a new undersea optic cable in the Asia-Pacific region on Monday. [KT]

KT and Savills Korea, a property company, signed an agreement to develop a 9,000-kilometer (5,592 mile) submarine cable running from Korea to Singapore, the companies announced Monday.

The unnamed project will have landing points at Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Savills Korea, which is a branch of London's Savills, will develop the proposal and raise funding from investors and governments. KT will design, construct and manage the cable.

The telecom company will also invest in the project but did not disclose the amount as the total funding size is not yet known.

Undersea cables play a critical role in carrying cross-border data transmission, with 90 percent of global traffic handled by these cables.

The need for additional undersea cables will increase, with companies opting for digital transformation and cloud networks that demand high-capacity data communication, according to KT.

KT and Savills have been working together in the construction of a data center, but this is the first time for Savills Korea to take part in an undersea cable project.

"The agreement with KT comes as a result of our efforts to expand the range of our real estate services," said Lee Soo-jeong, CEO of Savills Korea. "We hope to see the synergy between Savills Korea's global network and KT's outstanding data communication technologies."

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]