KT showed off their new Giga technology innovation in Boston

On June 12th, KT announced that they signed a MOU with the City of Boston and the Digital Equity Project. KT, the City of Boston and Netblazr concluded a three way MOU, to supply GiGA Wire to the historic city of Boston.

In April after a special class at the Harvard Business School in Boston Massachusetts, KT CEO Hwang Chang-Gyu talked with Boston Mayor Martin Walsh about moving ahead with the Digital Equity Project and discussed technical cooperation.

On June 7th City of Boston Chief of Staff Daniel Koh, visited Korea signed an MOU with KT.

On June 7th Daniel Koh visited KT’s Gwangwwamun building East in Jongno-gu Seoul. There he met with KT CEO Hwang Chang-Gyu and they toured KT ‘s network control center in Gwacheon Gyeonggi-do and the Internet Data Center in Mokdong Seoul.

GiGAwire allows internet speeds of up to 1Gbps over copper wire, rather than the usual fiber-optic cable. Harvard Business School wrote an article on the event called Korea Telecom: Building a GiGAtopia, which talks about the three technologies KT is introducing to the Boston market, GiGAwire GiGA Wi-Fi and GiGA LTE.

Boston, which is one of America’s oldest cities, has buildings which are over 100 years old, enticing visitors with its old fashioned charm. However a large number of these building are aging and it isn’t easy to upgrade their network infrastructure, which causes challenges. Thanks to this MOU, Boston will be provided with GiGAwire internet, transforming the quality of internet within the city.

According to the MOU, this will make Boston the initial proving ground of GiGAwire internet in the United States. KT is providing the equipment and knowledge needed to provide GiGAwire. Boston will manage everything related to local construction and management.

Boston’s designated internet provider NetBlazr, will be responsible for the installation and running of equipment, maintenance and customer support. The pilot project is expected to provide GiGAwifi to 100 to 150 low income households winter this year.

This is one of the main policy objectives in this MOU, which is pushed forward as part of the Boston Digital Equity Project. The Digital Equity Project seeks to use Public-private partnerships to improve network infrastructure so as to provide high speed internet at a reasonable rate for all families and businesses within the city of Boston. KT’s GiGAwire technology is expected to contribute greatly towards the goals of the Digital Equity Project.

KT’s Technology-Fusion Department Director Lee Dong-myeon said “Providing KT’s GiGAwire to Boston, opens the telecommunications age in America. This shows that Korea’s ICT technology abilities are ahead. Going forward KT will continue to develop GiGAwire and other people facing core technologies, in order to establish ourselves on the world stage.”