Sachin Deshpande, Chief Operating Officer, Radius Infratel, on the challenges and opportunities associated with Fibre-Optic-To-The-Home (FTTH) technology
B&E: How important is Fibre-Optic-To-The-Home (FTTH) for attaining better broadband penetration in the country?
Sachin Deshpande (SD): From a dial-up connection speed of about 256 kbps to now a slightly respectable figure of 2 Mbps or more, the Indian consumer’s need for Internet speed has been growing fast. And so is the case with their dependence on broadband due to high usage of social networking and video streaming. Given the technology, today, broadband connections can be given only by wireless service providers. The best medium that can deliver these broadband-based services is fiber optical network. That is why the concept of providing fiber-optic-to-the-home came in. There have been some attempts by incumbents to provide optical fiber connectivity to homes but they have really not worked well. On the other hand, we have countries like China, South Korea and Japan, where people have been using 100+ Mbps broadband speed for the last 5-6 years. About 3 years back, we saw the opportunity. While the service providers have been making attempts to set up optical fiber infrastructure, we thought that an infrastructure service provider like us should chip in to provide optical-fiber-to-the-home. We are putting in place optical fiber based last mile connectivity that can be utilised by various service providers to reach out to their customers.
B&E: What are the challenges with FTTH?
SD: It is a new concept in the country because traditionally, telecom infrastructure has been laid out by service providers in India. Today, we install this network independently and then convince telecom operators to use it. Convincing them is the first challenge. We also have to engage various builders and developers who are coming up with new residential and commercial projects. They are a very important part of our ecosystem. Most of the leading operators have liked the idea of embedding the last mile connectivity into their project through FTTH technology.
B&E: Could you elaborate on the technical part of FTTH?
SD: The concept of optical fiber to the home comes from GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) technology. This technology came in existence about a decade ago. Apart from this, Radius Infratel holds the patent for NANO ( Neutral Access Network Operation) technology in more than 25 countries. This solution allows us to integrate multiple service providers that provide a variety of services. We are a company that lives on innovation. India’s first smart pre-paid electricity meter was brought to market by Radius. We have our research labs in Noida and Delhi. These labs work on both innovation as well as localisation of already existing technologies.
B&E: How important is Fibre-Optic-To-The-Home (FTTH) for attaining better broadband penetration in the country?
Sachin Deshpande (SD): From a dial-up connection speed of about 256 kbps to now a slightly respectable figure of 2 Mbps or more, the Indian consumer’s need for Internet speed has been growing fast. And so is the case with their dependence on broadband due to high usage of social networking and video streaming. Given the technology, today, broadband connections can be given only by wireless service providers. The best medium that can deliver these broadband-based services is fiber optical network. That is why the concept of providing fiber-optic-to-the-home came in. There have been some attempts by incumbents to provide optical fiber connectivity to homes but they have really not worked well. On the other hand, we have countries like China, South Korea and Japan, where people have been using 100+ Mbps broadband speed for the last 5-6 years. About 3 years back, we saw the opportunity. While the service providers have been making attempts to set up optical fiber infrastructure, we thought that an infrastructure service provider like us should chip in to provide optical-fiber-to-the-home. We are putting in place optical fiber based last mile connectivity that can be utilised by various service providers to reach out to their customers.
B&E: What are the challenges with FTTH?
SD: It is a new concept in the country because traditionally, telecom infrastructure has been laid out by service providers in India. Today, we install this network independently and then convince telecom operators to use it. Convincing them is the first challenge. We also have to engage various builders and developers who are coming up with new residential and commercial projects. They are a very important part of our ecosystem. Most of the leading operators have liked the idea of embedding the last mile connectivity into their project through FTTH technology.
B&E: Could you elaborate on the technical part of FTTH?
SD: The concept of optical fiber to the home comes from GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) technology. This technology came in existence about a decade ago. Apart from this, Radius Infratel holds the patent for NANO ( Neutral Access Network Operation) technology in more than 25 countries. This solution allows us to integrate multiple service providers that provide a variety of services. We are a company that lives on innovation. India’s first smart pre-paid electricity meter was brought to market by Radius. We have our research labs in Noida and Delhi. These labs work on both innovation as well as localisation of already existing technologies.
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