Telecom equipment and component maker Gigalane has begun mass supply of antenna and filters for base stations to Samsung Electronics, TheElec has learned.
The company’s factory in Vietnam was approved to supply by Samsung Network in January. Gigalane supplied its initial batch to the South Korean tech giant in March.
Samsung is securing antenna and filters from, in descending order based on volume, Ace Technologies, RFTek, KMW and Gigalane.
The South Korean tech giant is expected begin telecom equipment supply to US carrier Verizon next year.
Giglane is expect to benefit from this. Mertiz Securities is forecasting the company posed 180 billion won in sales and 10 billion won in operating profit in 2021. Gigalane posted 72.8 billion won in sales and 29.6 billion won in operating loss in 2019.
Samsung Network has been expanding the number of South Korean suppliers for antenna and filters. Ace and KMW was its main suppliers for 4G and RFTek was added as a supplier in 2019. RFTek has no 4G technology and only supplies 5G equipment to Samsung. RFTek has posted 35.4 billion won in sales in 2019.
KMW, which has Nokia as its client, wasn’t aggressive in its efforts to co-develop 5G equipment with Samsung, a person familiar with the matter said.
Samsung has been looking for suppliers to replace KMW, they said.
Gigalane is the main supplier for RF connector used in base stations for Samsung.
Telcon RF Pharmaceutical was the main supplier of the connectors before. RFTek and Gigalane only makes antenna and uses filters from other vendors to complete their modules. Ace and KMW does the whole process by itself.
Gigalane recently appointed Choi In-gwon as CEO. Choi worked at Samsung Electronics 30 years, from 1984 to 2014. He was the leader of hardware group of Samsung Network. He joined Gigalane in February, 2018.
Gigalane’s largest shareholder is Kim Hyun-jae, the son of ex-chairman Kim Jeong-gwon, who bought the company in 2006.
