KT (Korea Telecom) is South Korea’s incumbent and largest telco and a major player in cellular and pay TV. KT’s biggest rival is SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest cellco, which entered the wireline business when it acquired Hanaro Telecom in February 2008 and merged it into its own wireline operation called SK Broadband. SK now has an estimated 25% of the wireline broadband market compared to KT’s estimated 40%. So it’s KT, which added cellular and pay TV versus cellco SK Telecom, which added wireline broadband and pay TV. The rivalry is fierce.
KT previously announced it had selected gear with Marvell’s G.hn chips, which were originally developed for in-home networking, for use in MDUs as KT’s “last mile” solution. KT has also developed technology that it says is capable of increasing the speed up to 1 Gbps over older 2-pair LAN cables that are found in many older MDUs. The products, which KT calls 2pairs LAN GiGA technology doubles network speeds by improving the modulation over the wires between broadband service providers and their subscribers. Not only will KT use the gear, which is being made by an unnamed Chinese manufacturer, it is also exporting the products. So far it has named Spain and Turkey as destinations.
KT’s G.hn-based gear will compete directly against gear that uses G.fast chips, which were developed specifically for telcos to use as their “last mile” solution over copper phone wires and which many have said they will use inside MDUs to connect the MDU’s incoming fiber to each residence.
Enter SK Broadband with a G.fast solution that operates over MDU’s existing copper phone wires in MDUs at speeds up to 500 Mbps now and 1 Gbps in the future. SK said that on June 22 it has received approval the use the G.fast technology from two South Korean regulatory agencies – RRA (National Radio Research Agency), which is under the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) and from ETRIA. SK said that normally those speeds can only be achieved over fiber but most older MDUs have only one pair of copper telephone wires. G.fast was developed under the auspices of the ITU, which telcos most often rely on for their technology standards. The G.hn solution that KT is using is said to not have been approved by the ITU or the Home Grid Forum.
SK said increasing data transmission efficiency by minimizing radio interference over copper wires raised speeds. SK said that in March South Korea had designated G.fast as a technology standard, which puts KT under a bit of pressure.
SK’s G.fast gear achieves 500 Mbps over one pair of copper phone wires and 1 Gbps over two pairs of phone wires. It uses Vectoring to achieve those speeds.
G.hn and G.fast cannot co-exist over the same wires so the race will go to the service provider that gets to the MDU first.
SK said G.fast can provide internet services including 4K/UHD video streams, to residences in older MDUs, which it said that up until now was a “blind spot.”
SK’s G.fast gear uses network chips from Sckipio. The name of the manufacturer is not known but it could be any one of many companies in South Korea, Taiwan or China. At one point KT said Ubiquoss is the manufacturer of its G.hn gear.
Australia’s Telstra and NBN are said to be evaluating G.fast gear for use both in neighborhoods and in MDUs.
How important are MDUs in the drive to bring 100+ Mbps broadband to all? Several industry insiders have told us that MDUs are the center of the bullseye for G.fast. There is no doubt that backers of MoCA Access for MDUs will soon be in the market, especially with cablecos.
This first ran in Rider Research’s Online Reporter.