Broadband

FTTH possible with PON at a drastically low expense

Pradeep Chakraborty

Netware Technologies, a division of ACL, is a leading provider of networking and connectivity products to the domestic and international markets. A technology agnostic company, it deals in the field of fiber and design networks, and delivers products and installs networks for customers. Products and services include fiber-optic cables, fiber management systems, cable installation services, PON equipment for metro networks, free space optics, HDPE ducts, cable laying equipment, multiconferencing systems, messaging solutions and test & measurement equipment.

Atulyash M. Naik, General Manager, Netware Technologies, recently spoke to Convergence Plus regarding the solutions currently being offered for the Indian market, including solutions for basic and cellular service providers, cable TV operators, ISPs, etc. Excerpts:

FOCUS OF NETWARE TECHNOLOGIES

We are a technology-oriented company. Of the 50 employees, 47 are engineers. We are focused on the technology solutions side. We are in the field of fiber and offer solutions based on fiber – which is the incoming thing now. We are looking forward to being the forerunners of the industry. We want to pioneer new things in the industry. Elsewhere in the world, fiber optics has established itself and is making networking easier. The access to the last head is becoming even better.

FSO AND OTHER SOLUTIONS OFFERED BY NETWARE

FSO is free-space optics. It is among the products we are offering as part of our comprehensive optical solutions. FSO or wireless optics is part of our solution. But we are into wired solutions as well. The PON solution is a facet of access. Netware is also offering the MCS, claimed to be the world’s first multipoint-to-multipoint IP-based multimedia conferencing system. (See box items for FSOs, PONs, MCS, etc.)

WHETHER FTTH CAN BE OFFERED WITH PON

First, we need to see what are the delivery conditions and the desire of service. Enablement of the desired service and the service offerings is bridged by PON most efficiently, as it enables the usage of optics till the curb, and even up to the home. FTTH is possible with PON at a drastically low expense as compared to an active optical network. All of the active components responsible for construction of the distribution layer are costly and difficult to be serviced, and the requirement of expert manpower to man the services is reduced. Also, the manpower desirable to maintain a distribution layer of a network sprawled across a few hundreds of km, in case of MANs, is really very difficult.

In urban and semi-urban areas of India, we see that FTTH or FTTN (node) and redistribution of the signal over the existing copper is possible quite easily. We also want people to look at it more proactively and positively. We are appealing to the carriers, private basic telephony players, and private broadband access players, BSNL and the DoT to have a look at the possibility of deploying optic fibre. Today, worldwide, the cost of fiber is minimal.

INDUSTRY SHAKEOUT AND ITS EFFECT

Currently, a shakeout is happening in the industry and people are just starting to settle down. But it is not like the dotcom burst. A niche market uses optic fiber. But thankfully, the shakeout has come at a time before it hurts many more people financially, like the dotcom burst has done.

As for optical cables – we import the fiber, design our cable, get it manufactured and deploy it here. That makes us much cheaper. Solutions such as PONs have no active components all across the distribution layer. This makes it much more cost effective, as you would not have serious maintenance problems on the distribution layer. There are active components at either end of a network. So there is a huge, active headend at the service provider’s end. At the curb, you have a distribution node. From there, you can take it up with your own copper network.

We will shortly announce a huge prestigious contract. We are working very closely with people who are seriously looking at it and will be able to deploy it here. So is the situation with FSOs. We will be deploying FSO at one of the service providers’ locations shortly. We are also looking at the usage of optical fiber in the existing service providers’ networks.

SOLUTIONS FOR CABLE TV OPERATORS

There are about 33,000 cable TV operators in India including the owners of the headends and the franchisees. There are about 8,500 cable headends accounting for 40 million CNS households. A small percentage of these, about 30 percent, such as Hathaway, Siticable, are corporatised etc. They are working mostly in class A in India. These people are capable of deploying technically sound people. The rest are independent MSOs.

Independent MSOs are operating in class A and class B cities as well. They are the ones who are desirous of subscribing to someone capable of giving them complete solutions in optic fiber. What needs to be given to them is a comprehensive solution by virtue of which they will be able to learn how to take the optical fiber to the curb. Imagine, after the curb, he has his own copper network and some kind of maintenance is also done on that network, as he’s also responsible for some kind of SLA. We have such solutions for cable TV operators.

It is more beneficial for cable operators to get into Internet service provision, as it’s here that the corporatisation of independent cable operators is also happening. You also need to see whether the cable operator is ready to deploy CAS. The headend equipment costs about Rs. 125,000 for each paid channel. About 30 paid channels are reached in every location - which means approximately Rs. 40 lakhs worth of headend equipment with the possible cost of a set-top box - which is between Rs. 4,000 and Rs. 6,000.

Today, they are offering CAS via the IRD, as within the network, it is an open access, but it is conditional access to the operator. For the broadcaster, it is conditional access to the cable operator. But the broadcaster is not controlling the number of subscribers. That’s where the broadcasters lobby is forcing the government to enforce conditional access so that the broadcaster’s control percolates down to the network and he also comes to know the number of subscribers viewing the channels. Cable operators are not opposing the deployment.

But today, the question is of installing equipment worth Rs. 40 lakhs at the headends at on go. For example, there are three operators located within an area of 10 sq. km. in a densely populated, suburban area. If the required Rs. 40 lakhs worth of equipment worth is to be deployed at each headend, what can they do to control costs? The three operators will likely come together, deploy one headend, and from there maintain their connectivity and their own networks.

FSO SOLUTIONS FOR CABLE TV OPERATORS

The cable TV industry is divided into various categories. The primary markets are places where a viewer has an additional hour at home. But people in urban areas or class A areas do not have this luxury. The secondary market comprises about 75 towns having about 3.95 million cable and satellite homes. But the penetration is 13.6 per cent. Here you have a huge opportunity. The socio-economic structure changes substantially. The tertiary market also brings huge opportunity. But with the diversity of the Indian society, there will be even more categories that we could not enlist in our study. The top 10 markets plus primary and secondary locations together account for 110 locations or towns. This is a huge opportunity for FSOs. We are offering FSOs to these people, as well as to basic operators, ISPs, broadband providers, etc.

SOLUTIONS FOR WLL NETWORKS

We are also trying to take up WLL applications. But we are focusing on areas where point-to-point data transfer is huge. We are getting into the carrier level. For example, in places where a carrier has two exchanges in a MAN placed within an area of five-sq. km., carriers are subscribing to FSOs.