LG Uplus announced Sunday that it has renewed its contracts with Ubiquoss and Dasan Network Solutions to supply 5G equipment.

South Korea’s third-largest mobile carrier will purchase 271 billion won ($224 million) of 5G equipment by May 2023 -- revised from the initial 155 billion-won deal set to expire on November 2021. It will buy about 90 billion won of 5G equipment a year.

LG Uplus said the this will increase supplies of equipment for its 10 Gigabits per second 5G network service. The new contracts would help it secure 5G network equipment to counter rapidly the increasing internet traffic in the country.

The company plans to roll out its 10Gbps network service in phases over the next few years. Its 10Gbps service, which was introduced in January this year, is expected to eventually replace the current 1Gbps 5G network service.

Meanwhile, the telecom firm also expressed hopes that the latest contract will help local equipment firms counter the economic fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)