Until recently, most of India’s broadband growth was achieved on copper wire. Operators such as Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) initially made a conscious strategic push towards wire. However, since the cost of deploying optic fibre cable (OFC) is almost the same ?? and it offers greater advantages ?? operators are veering more towards OFC. The decision that now needs to be taken by operators deploying more wireline networks is whether to opt for copper wire or OFC, as the cost of deployment for both is almost equal.

The main growth in this segment is driven by bandwidth-hungry applications such as video conferencing, e-education, e-governance, telemedicine, online gaming and internet protocol TV (IPTV). As networks are implemented for triple play ?? voice, data and video ?? they become more complex, driving the need for fast transport based on optics.

Global demand scenario
In 2006, according to CRU International, a UK-based research agency, the global demand for optic fibre was 97.3 million km, with Asia leading at about 48 million km. In the first quarter of 2007, demand for optic fibre rose 7 per cent to 24.7 million km, as compared to the first quarter of 2006. The total demand in 2007 is expected to surpass that in 2006, on account of renewed fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and infrastructure rollouts in North America, Europe and Asia.

According to KMI Research, USA, the worldwide demand for OFC from 2006 to 2012 is estimated to rise at a CAGR of 9 per cent, of which FTTH deployments would be a very significant contributor.

OFC in India
Looking at the Indian scenario, in 2006 the telecom cable market grew by 59 per cent to around Rs 15.66 billion. Future growth rates are expected to be higher than global growth rates for OFC due to new technologies and services such as 3G, national internet backbone, e-governance, telemedicine, IPTV, FTTx, and continued upgrades and replacements of existing infrastructure. As Vijay Yadav, managing director, South Asia, UTStarcom, puts it, “In greenfield areas there will be more fibre deployments. Fibre at the core has become acceptable and transmission is almost 100 per cent fibre. We are likely to witness a revolution where fibre will reach the last mile to the kerb, if not to the home.”

India’s combined total of over 700,000 route km of OFC is clearly insufficient to address the country’s telecom and broadband needs. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has the largest OFC network at 495,000 route km, and among private operators, Reliance Communications Limited (RCL) has the highest at 100,000 route km, while Bharti Airtel, the largest mobile company, has more than 50,000 route km. Other operators have less than 10,000 route km each.

While these figures imply that private sector companies may have previously shied away from investment to ramp up their fibre infrastructure, today this no longer holds true. With increasing broadband usage in India, companies including BSNL, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), RCL, Bharti Airtel and TTSL, have now shown greater interest in expanding their OFC networks.

New initiatives
Among recent initiatives, BSNL has drawn up an ambitious plan to connect over 500,000 new broadband subscribers a month, starting January 2008. RCL, which is planning to connect 500,000 villages through its OFC network, is likely to extend its pan-Indian OFC network to 130,000 route km by end-2007. MTNL has signed a $41.6 million contract with Sterlite, whereunder Sterlite will design, develop and implement MTNL’s high speed OFC network, targeting business customers in Mumbai and Delhi. This network will be capable of handling about half a million broadband connections in these cities. For the Mumbai circle, MTNL has set a target of bringing at least 40 per cent of its 2.5 million landline subscribers to its broadband network by March 2008.MTNL has also tied up with UTStarcom to deploy UTStarcom’s Rolling Stream end-to-end IPTV solutions.

Meanwhile, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is planning to tie up with Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited (HFCL) to roll out a 7,000 km OFC network at a cost of Rs 12 billion.HFCL will lay the cable connecting RIL’s retail outlets across the country. RIL is also negotiating with RailTel, Power Grid and BSNL to lease additional fibre lines.

Optical submarine cables
To meet the surging demand for high capacity telecom networks, thousands of kilometres of OFC is being installed not only in the ground, but also at the bottom of oceans. Owned by different consortia and private companies, these subsea cables aim to eventually link every corner of the world.

From an Indian perspective, the present submarine cable scenario is not very encouraging as there are only four Indian bandwidth providers ?? Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), Bharti Airtel, RCL and BSNL ?? compared to 33 providers in London, 32 in the US and Germany each, 24 in France and 14 in South Korea.

RCL’s FLAG Telecom has over 65,000 km of submarine cable network. Recently, FLAG awarded a $1.5 billion contract to Japan’s Fujitsu to construct RCL’s nextgeneration network (NGN) submarine cable. The NGN cable will involve construction of four new cable systems across the Mediterranean, East Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. With this, FLAG’s global network will increase to 115,000 km and it will be able to extend its reach and connect 60 countries.

VSNL International covers four continents and has majority ownership in 206,356 km of a terrestrial fibre and subsea cable network. Through its principal ownership status in SMW-3, SMW-4, SAFE, TIC (100 per cent owned), and capacity ownership in FLAG and i2i Enterprise, VSNL International offers the greatest diversity for connectivity services to India.

Conclusion
Over the past few years, OFC has been replacing copper wire. According to Dr Kailash Choudhary, managing director, Aksh Optifibre: “When fibre replaces copper for long distance calls and internet traffic, it dramatically lowers costs.Optical fibre, being only Rs 140 per kg, is much cheaper than copper. Moreover, this fibre can manage a significantly higher data rate (bandwidth) over greater distances. It also requires significantly less maintenance and has a longer life as compared to copper.”

However, while OFC may pave the road ahead, the crucial issue remains whether telecom companies have the required money to make the expensive migration from copper to fibre.