A South Korean consortium including KR Plant Service & Engineering Company, has secured a $1 billion order from Saudi Arabia to lay optical cables underground, a state trade agency said.

Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said in a statement that the consortium of four small South Korea companies had been picked as the final winner of the turn-key project by Integrated Telecom Company, a wire and Internet service operator in the Middle East country.

The three-stage construction would begin in August and be completed by the end of 2013, it added.-Reuters