At the competition of three common carriers over giga Internet investment, domestic wired communications equipment makers are spending a busy autumn. These companies are expected to continuously enjoy the benefits of giga Internet investment for two – three years in the future. 

KT, which has lead giga Internet investment competition, plans to build a wired and wireless integrated giga infrastructure by investing KRW 4.5 trillion over the next five years. SK Broadband and LG U+, although not disclosing detailed amounts, are forecast to execute an extensive investment as KT. 

“Although it has not been confirmed, we estimate that a considerable amount of common carriers’ investment cost for next year will be about giga Internet,” said an equipment industry source. “The investment scale will increase according to the trends concerning the three common carriers.” 

This is the first time in eight years since FTTH (fiber to the home) for IPTV service commencement in 2006 for the three common carriers to embark on an extensive investment in the wired market. 

Under the circumstances, wired equipment industry’s expectations are heightening. The industry is forecast to enjoy benefits as the wired communications equipment market is being dominated by domestic companies, such as DASAN Networks and ubiQuoss. 

Since last month, DASAN Networks has been supplying V2724GB equipment offering an Internet speed of 500Mbps – 1Gbps to KT using the existing UTP cables. 

The company is conducting a large-scale FTTH equipment benchmark test (BMT) this month and is preparing for supply early next year. DASAN Networks is currently in the process of a large-scale FTTH equipment BMT with SK Telecom. After the BMT, LGU+ will start a pilot service next month.

“Starting with KT’s investment at the end of this year, we forecast that the three common carriers will embark on giga Internet investment full scale early next year. As much as so, the domestic equipment industry is inspirited,” said DASAN Network’s President Yu Gwang-hun for domestic business division. “Our domestic super high-speed Internet equipment sales next year will increase by more than 50% from this year.” 

ubiQuoss, which is supplying wired equipments to SK Telecom and KT, has been put on emergency alert overloaded with orders. The company is having difficulty keeping up with the orders flooding in. 

“As common carriers’ investment competition began earlier than expected, the demand at the moment is five times the original estimation,” said ubiQuoss CEO Lee Sang-geun. “We are having a hard time keeping the deadline because there are no enough raw materials secured in our inventory.” 

“We expect that common carriers will make investment extensively in the first half of next year for giga Internet implementation earlier on,” said CEO Lee. “We forecast sales increase by around 20 – 30% over the next two to three years.