Marconi, with the help of local partner Yukyung Telecom, has sold its second high-speed broadband optical transmission system in Korea. Under the terms of a multi-million contract, Marconi will supply Powercomm, a subsidiary of Korea Electric Power Company, with the means to keep pace with the burgeoning demand for high-speed Internet access and data transmission. Marconi is also supplying training to install and maintain the network.
Offering data transmission speeds of up to 155Mb/sec (STM-1), Marconi's equipment will put Powercomm in the forefront of the Internet revolution taking place in Korea. The deal with Powercomm comes only four months after the sale of a similar system to another Korean operator by Marconi.
The MAS SDH transmission platform is specifically designed for the rapidly expanding broadband access market. It supports full remote configuration, administration and network management of all features. This means upgrades and new services can be provisioned remotely as required, which in conjunction with the system's low-spares requirement, makes for considerable cost savings in maintenance and new service roll-out. Deployment costs can also be cut by virtue of the SDH Path Switched rings offered by MAS. Apart from providing inherent resiliency, the feature also reduces the total number of fibre miles needed to support a number of different locations. MAS also provides tributary interfaces such as T1/E1, V.35, DS3 and Ethernet, something which no other transmission system is currently able to offer.
The South Korean optical transmission market for 1999 is thought to be worth around $400 million, with an expected growth rate of between 100-200 percent this year alone. An estimated 20 percent of the country's 47 million population are currently connected to the Internet, a figure that is expected to double this year.
About Marconi:
Marconi plc is a global communications and IT company that supplies advanced communications solutions and the key technologies and services for the Internet.