Dear Stakeholders,
We hope that you and your dear ones are safe in these challenging times. The past 12 months have been extremely dynamic and eventful for a variety of reasons. With our agility to respond and sincerity to develop new solutions, we came out stronger and better prepared for the upcoming decade of network creation. While we faced challenges due to the pandemic in the first half of the financial year, STL recorded strong, sustained growth in the second half and strengthened its global position with long-term orders. We have an order book of over ` 10,700 crores with diversified global wins. All of this was enabled by an unprecedented year that solidified humanity’s belief in the technology of digital networks.
2020 – A year of technological leaps for the world The world
is in a technology warp. Things that we previously thought impossible are happening now. GPT 3, world’s largest AI language with 175 billion neurons, is set to revolutionise human-like content and machine learning. Satellite mega constellations are ready to beam the internet to the world and with recently demonstrated quantum supremacy, the possibilities of computing are set to expand to unexplored levels. Aren’t these all the wonders of technology? In years to come, there are sure to be more revolutionary products that will continue to change our lives. But before they become a reality, we would have to be ready with robust digital networks that would carry these wonders of technology to billions.
FY21 – A year of turning adversity into a springboard for us
Although 2020 was tough, it brought about one major transformation – an inflection point for digital networks. And the rest, they say, is history. We all know that these networks proved to be the backbone of society during the pandemic as an unprecedented number of users joined the internet on a daily basis. This internet gold rush was accompanied with strategic investments in digital networks across the world. Some of the notable investments included FCC’s allocation of $20 billion in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) in the US, Telefónica and Allianz Private Equity investment of ~$5 billion for FTTH build-outs in Germany and ~$4.5 billion for National Broadband Network (NBN) in Australia. The technology warp was true for the digital networks too. In 2021, technologies like 5G, FTTH and Open RAN went mainstream. These led to sustained growth in optical fibre demand. Already ahead in the technology curve, with capabilities around converged networks, disaggregation, compute and edge, STL, opened up the path for non linear growth for this upcoming decade of network creation. Here are some notable developments:
Big strides towards transforming billions of lives through digital networks:
This is not just a statement, this is the purpose that we live by. FY21 was a big step forward in this direction. We engaged with industry leaders, customers, governments and the R&D community to push the envelope for digital inclusion. We worked very closely with operators across the world to make large-scale rural broadband programmes a reality through deep fiberisation and access densification. We also took the baton for 5G readiness and built a technology ecosystem and an alternative supply chain for secure and open 5G networks.
• Deep and long-term engagements with customers:
Our larger vision backed by technology and R&D led to some multi-million dollar engagements with top customers across the globe. We deepened our 14-year-old relationship with the British telecom leader, Openreach to help build a connected UK, partnered with one of the leading telcos in the US for open source radios, and tested programmable FTTx with a large Asian telco. These partnerships will shape the network build outs for the next decade and open up new growth possibilities for us.
• Robust 5G solutions:
This year marked our entry into the wireless and 5G space with three significant product launches. We developed commercially viable open source indoor small cells offering, called Garuda, 5G multi-band radios, and vRAN solutions to kickstart our 5G journey. This was marked by the formation of our Access Solutions business unit, which will be dedicated to developing programmable, software defined and open source solutions for the 5G world.
• Relentless, IP-backed innovation:
This exciting journey was shaped by our fundamental R&D efforts to solve industry problems. During FY21, we exhibited 105% growth in patent portfolio, with our patent count touching 569.
In this tough year, a big part of our focus was on people’s safety and our commitment to customers. Despite the pandemic, we built mega-scale digital networks and demonstrated project delivery excellence. Project Varun (Navy Communication Network) reached 92% and Mahanet (Rural broadband) reached 98% completion. Not only this, we fast tracked our capacity enhancement to 33 mn fkm (by June 2021) and also strengthened our leadership team by hiring industry stalwarts globally. And this is just the beginning, we have greater plans for the future.
STL has its eyes on the future
We expect the growth momentum to continue in FY22. With commercially launched new products for optical and wireless networks, we have set up the stage for disruptive growth in the 5G era. In the preceding years, we prepared for technology confluences that are shaping the future of digital networks. Now, we are making foundational efforts in all the areas that matter to us as a business and as a part of humanity. Connectivity for us implies connecting every human at the bottom of the pyramid and that’s why we have a major focus on digital inclusion and are pioneering rural connectivity at large. Sustainable manufacturing is at the core of our operations as we believe in a ‘greener’ future. We are committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and our business decisions are guided by what is good for the planet. Some of the STL’s sustainable manufacturing initiatives include Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of products, opting for a zero waste to landfill strategy, leveraging water resources wisely and reducing carbon emissions.
~$20 billion
Invested in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) in the US
The future hinges on solving core networking problems
The future of digital networks will be defined by 5G readiness, deep fiberisation and a shift to open and disaggregated networks. At STL, we have a deep understanding of the nuances of networks and with our end-to-end solutions spanning optical, system integration and wireless access, we are ready to solve networking challenges for telcos, enterprises, citizen networks and cloud companies. In future, our three strategic levers will drive growth for us:
- Grow optical business
- Globalise system integration, while scaling in India
- Build disruptive, open source Access Solutions
As we enter this exciting decade of network creation, we take with us our successes and aspirations, and look forward to delivering the wonders of technology to billions. We would like to thank our employees, all STLers, for their commitment to our purpose. It is their alignment behind our strategy and dedication that enabled us to deliver on our promises. We also want to thank you, our shareholders, for your trust in us. We look forward to your continued support in this journey. We assure you we will continue to strive to transform billions of lives by delivering digital networks.