Ciena is a leading global provider of converged packet and optical networking platforms as well as intelligent software solutions to service providers, governments, enterprises and sectors such as research and education. In an interview with tele.net.in, Ryan Perera, country head, Ciena talks about company’s plans for Indian market, challenges facing the company and the way forward.
Edited excerpts…
Could you give us a brief background of Ciena?s global and Indian operations?
Founded in 1992, Ciena traded publicly on the NASDAQ between 1997 and 2013, when the company switched to the New York Stock Exchange. We have grown through both organic innovation and acquisition to become an industry leader with annual revenues of about $2 billion. We provide converged packet and optical networking platforms as well as intelligent software solutions to service providers, governments, enterprises and sectors such as research and education around the world.
We have been operational in Indian for over nine years and cater to five of the seven leading telecom operators in the country. We have tracked market growth rates, specifically in the segments that we focus on ? intelligent infrastructure solutions that meet optical transport and switching requirements across backbone networks in India.
We continue to grow our India operations and currently work from Gurgaon and Mumbai, where we have facilities for research and development (R&D), general and administrative functions, and sales and service operations.
How is Ciena placed vis-?-vis its competitors in India?
Our competition varies depending on the business application, but we generally find ourselves competing with other global top-tier players. In India, we are leaders in coherent 40G/100G deployments and intelligent control plane deployments. We have significant local capacity, from warehousing facilities to local repair skills to 24×7 in-country support, as well as local R&D facilities for local testing and verification.
What have been some of the recent innovations in submarine cable technology?
The focus of all submarine cable operators is to significantly reduce operating costs of their networks in an environment of steadily increasing bandwidth demand coupled with constant price erosion for intercontinental submarine capacity. The deployment of next-generation submarine architectures with innovative technologies that will help operators adopt competitive business models is a key priority. Ciena has solutions that enable submarine network operators to leverage their existing network assets to gain more bandwidth, higher-availability services, and differentiated customer-focused offerings.
What are some of the technology trends in the telecom sector?
Ciena expects India to be a leader in making 3G services available for mass consumption. This presents an excellent opportunity. As operators in India are looking ahead to 4G services, they will require scalable, high performance networks for mobile backhaul. While mobile penetration in India is high, smartphones and mobile data services are still in their infancy. We expect that as the market matures, the network upgradation required to meet this demand will represent a huge opportunity for Ciena. We also expect Indian operators to be planning for network modernisation. The continued growth in web traffic and demand for high-bandwidth services like high definition video and cloud computing will require network operators to invest in infrastructure.
What are some of the operational and regulatory challenges in India?
In terms of operational challenges, the biggest concern is external plant operations. Fibres get cut frequently, and the electricity grid is not reliable. Operators with solutions like those from Ciena that offer strong self-healing capabilities that can automatically and intelligently find alternative paths when fibres are cut have an advantage in India. In addition, equipment that runs on low power and requires very little cooling can help reduce the cost of diesel power generation in the event of power grid failures.
What are the growth drivers for optic fibre in the country?
As stated earlier, the impact of mobile bandwidth is just starting to be felt in India. As operators bring their 3G services online and start to scale up their networks for 4G, the importance of wireless backhaul will grow. India has over 900 million mobile subscribers, but most of them are currently on 2G. Therefore, the move to 3G, and eventually 4G, will be a significant driver. In addition, of the 900 million users, about 120 million use mobile internet, and, therefore, mobile data access will experience huge growth.
In order to cater to this growth, mobile operators will have to increase the capacity of the networks, driving significant growth in optic fibre bandwidth solutions. We see Indian operators increasing the capacity of domestic backbone networks, international networks, and mobile access networks.
