KT Corp, South Korea's biggest telecommunications company, said on Monday that it has signed a contract with a Chinese Internet firm to supply network management equipment for the expansion of broadband Internet services in China.

The agreement, initially worth 1.2 billion won (US$1 million), calls for KT to export its hardware and software for high-speed Internet access to China Communications Corp, a unit of China Netcom Corp, which a subsidiary of China Network Communications Group, the mainland's second-largest fixed-line phone company.

After the export of its hardware is complete, KT then will install the equipment in the northern part of China for Chinese Internet firm. KT, which controls more than half of South Korea's broadband Internet market with 11 million subscribers, has been aspiring to export software and hardware for high-speed Internet services. The contract will help KT gain an advantage over other telecom vendors in expanding broadband Internet services in the world's potentially largest Internet market, said KT spokesman Cho Chul-je. China Communications aims to increase its broadband Internet subscriber base to 1.3 million from 550,000 as of the end of 2003, according to a statement by KT Corp.