KT Launches First Terabit Network Trial in South Korea

Seoul, South Korea - KT Corp (NYSE: KT) announced it has successfully tested terabit-speed transmission on its backbone network connecting Seoul, Busan, and Cheonan, becoming the first domestic carrier to achieve this milestone.

The backbone network, which serves as fundamental infrastructure for all telecommunications services, achieved data transmission speeds of 1.2 terabits per second (Tbps) over the 530-kilometer Seoul-Busan route and 1.6 Tbps on the 110-kilometer Seoul-Cheonan section.

KT enhanced its backbone network by implementing Coherent technology and Flex-Grid wavelength transmission methods to enable high-capacity data transfer, responding to increasing demands from AI, cloud services, and global content consumption.

The company projects that once deployed, the terabit-speed transmission will increase data transmission speeds between metropolitan data centers by approximately 2.6 times, while nationwide backbone network speeds will double. 

Full implementation is scheduled for the first half of 2025.

KT said the network upgrade will improve overall network flexibility to meet diverse customer needs, particularly benefiting clients requiring large bandwidth for services such as cloud computing.

The company had previously introduced next-generation ROADM (Re-configurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer) technology and completed South Korea's first 600G nationwide network in June 2023. 

ROADM technology enables automatic configuration when new optical communication lines are added or removed.