The Hindu Business Line : Sterlite Optical hopes to ride high on broadband

STERLITE Optical Technologies (SOTL), an integrated manufacturer of optical fibres and telecom cables, is gearing to grow business on the back of the virtual explosion in the broadband space which is now poised for the next big thing, triple play technologies.

The company is also foraying into newer areas of business and is now positioning itself as a provider of access solutions in the broadband triple play segment, Mr Anand Agarwal, CEO, Sterlite Optical Technologies, said here.

SOTL is also eyeing a piece of the global market. It already has footprints in China with a seven per cent share of the total 11-12 million fibre km, Mr Agarwal said.

"Our focus is to take our overseas market share from the current five per cent to 10 per cent," he added.

The foray into the access solutions business will account for more than 15 per cent of its revenues of an estimated Rs 550-600 crore this year.

Among the orders that it has bagged is a Rs 60-crore contract from MTNL for which it is supplying multi-protocol level switching (MPLS) for upgrading its exchanges for broadband technologies. The company is also supplying 60 lakh modems to BSNL for its broadband service.

SOTL has, meanwhile, lined up investments of Rs 16 crore for consolidation and debottling of its existing 4 million km fibre manufacturing facilities at Aurangabad.

With exports and the domestic market on the upswing, the company expects to sell 3.2 mkms of fibre this year and add half a million km to its capacity next year.

SOTL also has a 60,000-cable-km facility at Silvassa.

Meanwhile, the company is eyeing the global market for its products and has set up offices in Thailand and Dubai, which are fast growing markets.

Also being targeted is Saudi Arabia, which is in privatising its telecom network.

The company is working with OEMS in the European markets, which is seeing a large number of cable manufacturers exiting the business.

"We are planning to work with the network integrators to supply directly to them," Mr Agarwal said.

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