What are the opportunities of the fiber optics market in India?
Governments across Asia are encouraging investment in high capacity networks. They see fibre as the infrastructure of the 21st century. In a recent global survey, 71 percent of respondents expect to transition the majority of their networks to FTTH by 2025. Thus, governments are encouraging investment in very high-capacity networks and accelerate public access to Wi-Fi for the region. According to the 2016 FTTH Council Asia Pacific study, there are 94 FTTx projects in the region. For developing countries in Asia, such as India, with their rapidly increasing data traffic, it will be critical to continue to invest in broadband infrastructure in order to be economically competitive. This is especially true for India, which boasts an FTTH/B (fibre to the home/business) rate of just 0.5 percent according to the FTTH Council Asia Pacific, one of the lowest in the region. Multiple countries in Asia are launching smart nation initiatives to speed up digitalization such as Digital India, where it aims to convert 100 cities across the country into smart cities. In India, high-speed broadband connectivity on optical fibre will be available in more than 150,000 gramme panchayats, with wifi hot spots and access to digital services at low tariffs – by the end of 2017 – 2018, according to Budget 2017-2018, the Minister of Finance. According to Reportlinker, various next generation technologies such as Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and Fibre to the X (FTTX), which require seamless connectivity for continuous operation, are expected to drive the optical fibre cables market in India with a CAGR of over 13percent during 2016 – 2021. Data traffic has also been shown to significantly increase in recent years with a growing number of mobile and broadband subscribers in India, which leads to the expansion of optical fibre cable infrastructure in the country. Internet-driven applications like HDTV, video on demand have also seen growing demand in the country, which will further accelerate the optical fibre cable market development in India.
2. What will be the roadmap for the company to implement an esteemed technology in a country like India where a majority of the people have only moved to basic mobile telephone in the present?
One year after the acquisition of TE Connectivity’s BNS business, CommScope is well positioned to offer its solutions for India. Further, given our in-depth solutions portfolio, we are well-positioned to introduce products in the India market, which will lead to faster rollout.
3. What are the challenges that the company is looking to face in the upcoming days with regards to the implementation of fibre optics in India?
Rural in the telecom world is really any low-density market that is underserved or un-served with regards to true broadband and competitive video services. And choosing the right network architecture can make rural broadband deployment easy and profitable.
It’s no secret that rural areas need more bandwidth. The challenge lies in how to serve them. Companies that offer easy-to-install, reliable fiber element options are in a better position to support these challenges.
4. Benefits for (a) rural areas (b) urban areas
High-speed fiber broadband and cellular connectivity support economic growth and an improved quality of life for everyone. And this should be available across all parts of Asia – no matter how rural or hard-to-reach. The combination of fiber and wireless technology will meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s expanding bandwidth demands. A Passive Optical Network (PON) can be deployed by various network operators who want to deliver advanced voice, video and data services to their users/subscribers using fiber. A solid PON helps meet these challenges head on. It allows the central office to feed different niches (farms, residences, etc.) and assign different service profiles to each because everyone needs different levels of bandwidth. PONs are easy to install and reliable. While low-density areas are still a challenge; FTTH technologies are different today than even five years ago and can meet the six- to an eight-home per-mile challenge.
Fiber network convergence refers to the combination of multiple services within a single access network. In other words, a single pipe is used to deliver all or multiple forms of communication services. For example, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks have an extensive footprint that is perfect for supporting fast-growing mobile applications such as distributed antenna system (DAS), small cell and Wi-Fi backhaul and/or Centralized-RAN front-haul. Through fiber network convergence, a service provider could deliver a wider range of services, adopt new business models, offer innovative services and enter new markets.
The process of fiber network convergence is primarily driven by the development of enabling technologies, user demand and the service providers’ capabilities. Large incumbent service providers have both wireline and wireless operations, so converging onto a single network and maximising asset utilisation makes excellent business sense. Real-life examples have occurred where an FTTH network was built, and several months later, the same construction crew dug up the same street to lay fibre for a cell site, which is wasteful and disruptive. Network convergence would mean one build-out that could be utilised for multiple service delivery platforms.
For smaller telcos, utilities and municipalities – who have more limited budgets – addressing multiple market segments, adding revenue streams and de-risking the business case may be critical elements in network convergence. A city may have a project to fiber up schools and government offices, another project for traffic lights and security cameras, one for Wi-Fi in the city centre and one for a residential high-speed internet. By converging multiple applications onto a single fiber network, this project now has more stakeholders, more sources of funding and greater economies of scale.
Ultrafast fiber networks are currently being rolled out to our customers across Asia and, while changes won’t happen overnight, small businesses will soon be able to compete on a level playing field with larger businesses in major cities.
5. Is the company interested in research and development of a cost-effective fibre optics technology that the common Indian man can avail?
Definitely. Annually, we are investing $200 million in R&D.
Navin Vohra is the Vice President, Service Provider, Asia Pacific for CommScope.
