Seoul, South Korea – KT plans to deploy Ciena's (NYSE: CIEN) WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e) to accommodate ongoing customer demands for services beyond 400GbE. This follows a successful trial where KT transmitted and received data across its long-distance route between Seoul and Busan at 1.2 Tb/s, and at 1.6 Tb/s across its medium-distance route across Seoul and Cheonan.

KT predicts that with WL6e, data transmission speeds between metropolitan data centers will increase by about 2.6 times compared to previous versions, and the speed of its nationwide backbone network will likely double.

Optimized for high-capacity, low-latency transport required with next-generation routing data paths and the real-time processing requirements driven by AI applications, WL6e will support KT in meeting relentless bandwidth requirements. Paired with Ciena’s Navigator Network Control Suite, KT will be able to leverage automation to flexibly optimize its multi-layer network and increase the velocity of service offerings to its end customers.

“We’ve been working closely with KT to reach connectivity highs in South Korea, achieving the first 600G transmission route last year, and set to deliver 1.2 Tb/s nationwide with WL6e. The upgrade to KT’s network will provide the needed boost to support the upcoming acceleration of AI-driven network traffic and digital transformation in Korea,” said Henry Kim, Regional Managing Director, North Asia, Ciena.

KT will implement WL6e onto its nationwide backbone network in the first half of 2025.