Sterlite Technologies Limited (STL) develops and delivers products, solutions and infrastructure for telecom and power transmission networks, globally. STL is among the global leaders in all its business areas of optical fibre, fibre optic cables, power conductors and HV/EHV power cables through its operations in India, China and Brazil. As the most integrated optical fibre company in the world, STL is pioneering Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) deployment in the country to enable high-speed broadband connectivity. The company is also developing several transmission infrastructure projects spanning over 5,000 circuit kilometres across India. Excerpts from an interview with K S Rao, Chief Operating Officer (COO)...

Could you provide an overview of Sterlite Technologies' presence in the fibre optic segment?

Sterlite Technologies is ranked amongst the top 10 biggest global independent companies producing optical fibre and optical fibre cable. We have been producing optical fibre in India for over two decades traversing from a production capacity of about half a million fibre KM in 1994 to over 20 million fibre KM currently. Our growth contributions largely come from a healthy market mix of both domestic and international markets' expansion and deployment of fibre optic cables. Sterlite is today associated with top 10 telecom operators globally and all operators in India.

Greater than 40 per cent of the recent massive rollout of 4G/LTE services by the country's leading operators in the form of fibre deployment is being done by Sterlite. As one of the largest backward integrated manufacturers of optical fibres in the world, Sterlite offers a complete ITU range of optical fibres for a variety of applications like long haul, regional, metro, access and FTTx networks. Supported by fully integrated manufacturing facilities, R&D centre, network simulation lab and a dedicated centre of excellence, Sterlite's range of optical fibres deliver superior performance in data transmission and performance reliability.

What is the company's product portfolio and who are your main clients?

Sterlite's end-to-end offerings portfolio includes products and customised solutions for high-speed data transmission. The product portfolio comprises optical fibre, optical fibre cables, data cables, and services like system integration and telecom neutral networks. The state-of-the-art telecom Centre of Excellence at Aurangabad is one of its kinds in India where we work towards improving the quality of our products through research and development. The centre lays quality improvement focus on each step of the development of fibre starting from silica and glass preform to the network. The centre's objective is also to bring in world-class and next generation telecommunication technologies to India. Sterlite's optical fibre business spans more than 89 countries in five continents with top echelons of global telecom operators in various geographies being our esteemed customers.

What path-breaking technologies has the company been working on in the past one or two years?

In early 2013, well in advance of key competitors, a market benchmark was set with the introduction of Micro Bow-Lite, a reduced diameter optical fibre that enables nearly 40 per cent reduction in the cross-sectional area of optical cables, thus enabling lower cost, lighter weight and higher transmission capacities. Six optical fibre product introductions followed in rapid succession with significant enhancements to our flagship optical fibre category OH-Lite (E). Fully compliant to the ITU-T G.652D standard, OH-Lite (E) reduces optical loss, improves bend sensitivity and has demonstrated significantly improved loss performance when cabled alongside tensile strength - a winning combination for both our cable customers as well as the end-user telecom operator.

Additionally, a family of products under the Bow-Lite family has been refreshed to serve the growing market for fibre to the home or any premise (FTTx). Supporting best-in-class specifications, these products significantly exceed international standards and competitive specifications, and have led to interest and order commitments in global markets for bend-insensitive fibre. Also, a first in India, our easy-strip micro-module indoor cables have found traction across our major international customers. Lower diameter micro-cables and reduced weight across the entire family has helped our customers lower their installation times and increase their network capacity and thereby improve their time to market.

A major technology advance was accomplished this year with the introduction in India of Sterlite's 288-fibre count ribbon cable. An unqualified success helping our customers reduce installation times, this leading-edge product is now expected to be instrumental in the rapid deployment of metropolitan wire-line broadband as well as accelerate the availability of advanced 4G mobile broadband access in the country. In 2013, a breakthrough demonstration for the first time in India was accomplished with over 8 Terabits per second data transmission over Sterlite's optical fibre. This speed record was also accompanied by a distance record of 1,840 kilometres of optical fibre at our labs and it positions us uniquely across the globe in helping our customers understand and plan their networks as they migrate to ever increasing speeds.

What kind of scope exists for the company in the telecom sector in the coming years?

Both the Indian subcontinent and international markets represent growth for Sterlite in the years to come. The first billion fibre KM took ten years to deploy and the next billion half that time. We firmly believe that the next billion fibre KM will be rolled out in the next three years. This represents a significant opportunity for Sterlite. From an India market perspective, there is the demographical advantage. India's online population is significantly younger when compared with other BRIC nations with 75 per cent falling under the age of 35. India has the intrinsic strengths for a broadband revolution and data consumption behaviour transformation in this internet ecosystem comprising consumers, entrepreneurs, enterprises and driven by India's young internet-savvy population.

In terms of broadband and GDP, since a 10 per cent increase in internet and broadband penetration can add 1 per cent to the GDP of the country, there is significant support for the broadband worldwide, including in India with the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN). In order to reap maximum benefits broadband can bring, most governments are targeting high-speed broadband, with subscriber download speeds in excess of 10 Mbps. With the increase in the penetration of smartphones, mobile subscribers could get high-speed broadband. The appetite for user digital consumption is increasing multifold year on year and the underlying broadband infrastructure is unable to cope up with the quadrupling bandwidth demands. This requires significant optical fibre cable network deployment and Sterlite's unique positioning presents a strong growth opportunity for us.

What is the production capacity and is there a plan to augment it in the coming financial year?

We have been producing optical fibre in India for over two decades traversing from a production capacity of about half a million fibre KM in 1994 to over 20 million fibre KM currently.

How does the production of fibre optic cable in India compare with the rest of the world?

In the global market for fibre optic cables, Indian manufacturing and Sterlite's portfolio in particular exceed industry benchmarks both in performance and value to our end customers. While well-developed industry standards exist, our production capabilities far exceed these standards. More interestingly, as an emerging markets' manufacturer we are able to articulate solutions best suited to conditions such as in India and similar economies to support requirements as they arise. In addition, R&D capabilities have begun to augment manufacturing output in a structured and sustainable fashion.

Advanced programs involving next generation fibre are well under way as also a futuristic approach towards expanding transmission capacity and capabilities to support ultra-high-speed connectivity and to serve more subscribers. Technology development towards extreme low-loss fibre, low non-linearity, multi-core fibre, few mode fibre, multi-mode fibre are in progress in India and have the potential to scale transmission capacity far beyond the present state-of-the-art - with indigenous skills and technology.

What is the Indian government's policy on improving broadband connectivity in the country and how has STL aligned its growth plan to contribute to it?

The government's initiatives aimed at bridging the digital divide and improving broadband connectivity and these are playing a major role in driving OFC demand. With the Indian telecom sector entering the next phase of growth characterized by data revolution, the demand for optic fibre cable (OFC) is picking up. Investments in OFC networks are being driven by the process of strengthening backbone networks, growing demand for broadband services, rural penetration of telecom services, fibreising of tower sites, proliferation of next-generation broadband technologies like 4G/LTE, and increasing deployments for last-mile connectivity, etc.

The National Telecom Policy 2012 envisions reliable, affordable and high-quality converged telecommunication services for socio-economic development. It aims at achieving the goals of providing broadband-on-demand by the year 2015 and to achieve 175 million broadband connections by the year 2017 and 600 million by the year 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed and making available higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand. These factors are going to drive the demand for bandwidth to an insatiable level.