Today, a variety of industries including the medical, military, telecommunications, industrial, data storage, networking, and broadcast industries are able to apply and use fibre optic technology in a variety of applications. And, it is indeed relevant to say that telecommunications industry is the dominant user of optical fibre technology because the demand is high. In India, this demand has been on the rise and is being driven by factors like growth of fixed broadband, replacement of BSNL's ageing copper network by fibre optic cables (FOC), building an alternate network for Defence, wireless backhaul network up gradation and the need for higher speeds by 3G & broadband wireless access networks. India has an established backbone network connecting states with each other and centre. While FOC network exists till the block level, backhaul network is yet to be brought to Optical Fibre Cable Network. Almost 80-90% tower backhaul connections are still on microwave links and they do not offer support for higher bandwidth capacities. The beauty of fiber is that it has nearly unlimited bandwidth potential. Besides with increase in rural penetration, scarcity of spectrum is likely to increase further and consequently the demand of FOC for backhaul as well as BTS access will be on the rise.
India has an established backbone network connecting states with each other and centre. While FOC network exists till the block level, backhaul network is yet to be brought to Optical Fiber Cable Network. Almost 80-90% tower backhaul connections are still on microwave links and they do not offer support for higher bandwidth capacities. The beauty of fiber is that it has nearly unlimited bandwidth potential. Besides with increase in rural penetration, scarcity of spectrum is likely to increase further and consequently the demand of FOC for backhaul as well as BTS access will be on the rise.
Optical Fiber deployment in India started as early as in 1990, but then there was no local manufacturer. The entire optical fiber requirement had to be met through imports. Now the scenario has changed. Though the market consumption over the last two years has been less than 6 Mn fKm, Indian fiber manufacturing capacity is on a rise. With 4 main manufacturers, India boasts of reaching 28 Million fKm capacities (optical fiber) by 2013. Capacity for FOC (Fiber Optic Cable) manufacturing in India is approximately 8 Lakh Cable KM. More global players are eyeing to setup their plants or have tie-ups in India. Thus India can domestically meet the upcoming requirements for National Optical Fiber Network. Making these sourcing from domestic manufacturers, will not only suffice this projects requirement of resources but in fact provide a great impetus to boast domestic market, save on foreign currency, promote R&D and provide high quality evolving products for evolving Indian ICT industry.
India is one of the promising markets for the growth of fiber optics among the developing countries. Indian fiber optic cable manufacturers have been making their efforts to meet the internal demand for fiber optic cables. However, it is imperative that manufacturers of optical fibers receive total support to ensure sustainable development of the overall economy.
In fact, most developed economies have set up policies and frameworks that favour their own indigenous manufacturers against foreign players. Several initiatives like tax incentives, substantial project subsidies and financial support for R&D have assisted domestic industries in countries like China to come a long way from being an importer to a large exporter of technology products.
In conclusion, a concerted effort to boost manufacturing activity is now exigent as robust economic growth in the country is leading to an extraordinarily high demand for electronic products in general and telecom products in particular. Further, to ensure focused indigenous development in the telecom sector, efforts need to be concentrated towards a definite policy direction by creating a suitable roadmap to align technology, demand, standards and regulations, after considered evaluation of candidate technologies and the emerging trends.
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