Solid eyes London subway network project 

South Korean repeater maker Solid is eyeing to win London Underground’s network building project, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The Tube has been testing 4G LTE networks on some part of its Jubilee line since March. It will decide who will run the project within the third quarter, after testing is complete.

South Korea’s Solid and CommScope of the US is competing to win the order for the distributed antenna systems (DAS). Only one of the two will become the exclusive vendor of the repeaters. 

The deal for the repeaters is worth US$50 million, the people said.

DAS expands the coverage in in-building areas such as airports, stadiums, tunnels and subways. Solid has previous provided its goods to New York City Subway and Incheon International Airport in South Korea.

In May, CommScope filed a patent lawsuit against Solid in the US and UK. The US company claimed that Solid violated its patents related to its Digital DAS. Another company, Dali Wireless, have faced a similar lawsuit and CommScope won an injunction order against it, the US company previously said.

Solid said it was “disappointed” from the lawsuits and claimed it will only harm customers of the two companies. It said it has won patent lawsuits against global companies before __ it won a lawsuit by Corning back in 2015.

People familiar with the matter said CommScope likely filed the lawsuit to win the order from London as the result of the lawsuit will come after the bid is over.

Solid launched its Genesis DAS last year in January. It said the repeaters had upped software capabilities compared to its predecessors.