The Indian broadband market is witnessing growing demand for higher bandwidth. Consumption of video is increasing manyfold and the industry needs to invest in high-speed networks to cater to the growing demand for higher bandwidth. Companies such as Sterlite Networks Limited (SNL) are tapping this emerging business opportunity to provide users high speed broadband connectivity through FTTx technology.
In an interview with tele.net.in, Vijay Jain, chief operating officer and director, SNL, talks about the company?s performance, focus areas and the key growth drivers for fibre to the home (FTTH) market.
Excerpts?
How has SNL performed in the past year? What were the key milestones achieved and contracts signed by the company in 2013?
SNL witnessed an encouraging growth in business, last year. The company signed agreements, with major operators and internet service providers to serve ultra high speed broadband over the company?s fibre infrastructure.
The company is focused on mass roll out of FTTH. Currently, SNL has the largest base of FTTx homes. The company has more than 100,000 FTTx connected homes and a subscriber base of 20,000.
What are the business opportunities that the company sees in the FTTH market?
Currently, the Indian fixed broadband market is tremendously under-served. Last mile connectivity is one of the biggest challenges. With data consumption doubling on company?s infrastructure, it is evident that there has been a pull from the end user for higher bandwidth requirements, which cannot be catered through traditional networks. Therefore, this opens up a huge opportunity for the operators to deploy FTTx infrastructure for establishing the last mile connectivity in urban areas.
What are the key growth drivers for the FTTH market?
Increased adoption of applications such as virtual presence, HD content, video-on-demand, online gaming, e-Learning, security surveillance, video conferencing and e-medicine are a few of the key growth drivers of the FTTH market.
Globally, there is huge demand for HD over-the-top (OTT) video services, going forward, India too will witnesses huge demand for OTT video services. The growing demand for higher bandwidth can be met through only a big fat ethernet pipe which is agnostic to operators and services.
What are the key issues faced by the company while extending FTTx coverage in the country? How do you plan to address the same?
There have been a few challenges from identifying the right area for deployment to building up the network. One of the key challenges relate to seeking right of way clearances from multiple authorities. Other challenges include lack of awareness regarding FTTX led services and lack of power. The company has been undertaking awareness programmes in various residential welfare associations to educate people regarding the benefits offered by FTTx services. The company is building its own products to overcome issues regarding lack of power.
Given the huge potential that FTTx has in the Indian market, the lack of skill set to deploy the technology is proving to be another major challenge. Therefore, developing the required skill sets and creating a trained workforce has been a key focus area for the company. SNL has designed certified courses in partnership with leading vendors. Besides, the company imparts 20 in-house training programmes to its employees responsible for the deployment of FTTx.
What are some of the key technology trends that the FTTH industry is likely to witness in the next few years?
Gigabit-capable passive optical networks are the future of the Indian FTTx market over the next five years. Post that convergence of all access infrastructure is going to happen on passive optical network, be it femtocell, distributed antenna system or in-building solutions.
