SPECIAL FEATURE: Wired, alive, and kicking

The structured cabling industry has been registering excellent

growth both in terms of revenue as well as the number of nodes sold. Among the

technologies, the 10G over copper or Cat A6 continues to dominate the trends

page. However, switches and ports to support 10G over copper were still missing

from the market. This made most of the customers wait and watch for 10G over

copper or UTP standards to be ratified and components to be out in the market

before investing for a higher capacity.

There have been a few early deployments of 10G over copper and

Cat 7, which augurs well for the times ahead.

Another new technology that has emerged is the power over

Ethernet (PoE) but it is still too early to see some significant deployments.

The acceptance of this technology is directly dependant on acceptance of IP

equipment and applications the world over and in India too. "This

technology is being implemented more and more in switches. For the cabling

infrastructure, it is important to have components that support the IEEE 802.3af

protocol fully. However, there is a risk factor in the mating of plugs, and

connectors under electrical load can cause sparks," says Gaurav Ahluwalia,

country manager (India), Reichle De Massari (R&M). Globally the groundwork

is already in place for PoE because the vast majority of businesses have

Category 5 LAN that can accept PoE with ease.

"Acceptance

of technology and applications which need higher bandwidth is fuelling Cat6

market customer prefer it because it is future proof technology and Cat5e would

be almost two generations behind 10G when its ratified," says Prasanna

Kumar V, sales director (India and Saarc), Systimax Solutions. The good old

Cat5, Cat5e and Cat6 cables are also doing good business. Though a transition

was seen from Cat5e and Cat6. The general trend is to use Cat5e and Cat6 in the

horizontal cabling for Giga to the desktop and use fiber as the backbone to

support the entire network with a huge bandwidth. "In a normal desktop kind

of environment with not much bandwidth requirement, Cat5e is sufficient. Also

Cat6 can deliver 10G up to 40 meters on the current switches, so these two

products are selling in good numbers," says KK Shetty, country manager, AMP

Netconnect.

The market trend shows that the choice for enterprise-wide

backbone is equally distributed between copper and fiber and organizations would

use both. However, copper still dominates the market since it is more economical

and easy to implement. Also, copper has seen a lot of technological advancements

and improvements in the recent past. "As we know Cat5e and Cat6 are mainly

used in very dense networks in LAN environments, fiber is used in multi-floor

environments and campus networks. Unshielded Twisted-Pair (UTP) copper is most

widely used, because it is highly reliable and less expensive. Though expensive,

we may see an increased use of fiber in the backbone and campus installations

and also where the applications require high speed and high bandwidth,"

says K Bala Chandran, managing director (India & SAARC), Krone

Communications.

Market: Set for New Heights



The market size of the structured cabling industry, according to V&D 100

estimate, stood at around Rs 405 crore in FY 2004-05. The industry grew by

almost 25%. Systimax and Tyco together made up for almost 50% of the market

size. The market estimation includes the cable cost and the installation charges

which is typically 15% of the over cost of the project. "We believe that

the market could be growing at a rate of 15-20% in terms of noumber of

copper/fiber nodes and about 12-15% in terms of value after taking into account

price reductions," says SA Mohan, general manager, Sales and Marketing,

Molex India.

In unit terms, industry estimates indicate a 35% growth with

almost 20 lakh nodes being installed. "The market is very competitive and

though the number of units sold was more, the price rise was not equivalent.

This has led to a 10% difference in the two numbers," explains Ashish Chand,

country manager (India) & regional manager (SAARC), Belden CDT.

"There has been a 15% to 18% consistent growth in the

structured cabling market since 2003, however we saw in 2004-05, there was a 25%

growth. This is very encouraging," says Bala Chandran.

For the FY 2005-06, the market is expected to be around Rs 450

crore. It is because of the growing market players like Reichle De Massari

(R&M) from Switzerland, who have decided to test the Indian waters on their

own. The vendors and distributors are expecting the bull run to continue for

another four to five years from now. And with optimistic statements from the

government on creating 8 mn jobs in the next five years, the LAN business is

expected to go up. "Even if we achieve one third of the said numbers, we

would be clocking a minimum of 12% growth rate which can go up to 36% in the

coming years. And it must be kept in mind that 40% of our business today is from

repeat orders which will always be there due to upgradation of networks,"

says Shetty.

Shake It Baby



The Ethernet cabling industry is not very big in terms of revenue, however,

the presence of numerous players makes the space crowded with each one

struggling to keep its market share intact. Though the potential in India is

huge, still the value is not big enough for everyone to survive in the long run.

And with more Chinese and European companies coming to India, the price war is

expected to go up further.

Today, the market is not mature enough, and therefore multiple

vendors can afford to battle it out. But signs of consolidation are already

there and this is expected to intensify in the coming days. Like other

infrastructure equipment markets, customers are weighing their options on cost

versus quality.

If market conditions are taken on face value, the vendors with

end-to-end networking solutions and services are going to survive. Customers

would be ready to pay for quality and better services, making it difficult for

marginal and low cost players to survive.

Where the Money Is?



The Bangalore region continues to be the star market for structured cabling

vendors owning to the IT and ITeS companies. However, things are changing

rapidly with Chennai and Kolkata catching up fast. The fact remains that

wherever software development centers are being built, and data center and

disaster recovery sites are coming up, it becomes attractive for the cabling

industry.

Places like Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Noida, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Pune,

Mumbai, and even Lucknow and Ahmedabad are gaining importance. "Generally,

every sector is upgrading the network. But specifically wherever companies like

TCS, Infosys or Wipro or the BPO companies are setting up their offices they

need cables. In addition to this, many ancillary industries come up in these

areas completing the ecosystem. All this has shifted the focus from metros to

small or class B and C towns as well," adds Bala Chandran.

Who Is Buying?



The IT and software companies along with the IT enabled services (ITeS)

companies like call centers and BPOs are the main buyers of the structured

cabling products. Along with the public sector or the government driven

contracts, they form almost 60-65 % of the total market.

The rest of the market is divided between banking and financial

sector with almost 15-20 % share followed by the institutional sector. This

includes education institutes, the NGOs and campuses. Telecom and the defence

services are also investing in Ethernet cables in a big way.

Manufacturing constitutes very little of the Ethernet cabling

market but is a potentially high growth market. Though they are buying

industrial cables in a big way, it is estimated that this sector would

experience almost a threefold growth in the coming years. Similarly Biotech is

another segment on which the vendors are banking on.

To Wire or Not to Wire



The long drawn debate on whether Ethernet connectivity would be replaced by

wireless has been put to rest as everyone has understood that both the

technologies are complementary to each other. While growth in wireless has been

high, this has not reduced the need for wireline installations. With network

speeds increasing by the day and applications like VoIP demanding high network

bandwidth, wireline would always be in demand.

"Both the technologies do not match each others advantages

and on the contrary complement each other. Both the industries are growing at a

good pace and not hampering each others prospects," says Vikas Pinjarkar,

general manager - SCS (business developement), D-Link India.

Also the gray area of security, speed/bandwidth limitations and

poor quality of service of the wireless infrastructure in an enterprise

environment tilts the balance in favor of cables. However, the mobility

considerations have kept wireless on the last mile of the access. In fact, the

ideal network would be a combination of cables in the backhaul with wireless

access nodes on the last mile. "Wireless technologies are complementary to

wired networks, rather than contradictory and we see both the technologies

converging. The potentials of copper has not yet been harnessed completely and

in the near future, the combination of both will exist," says Bala Chandran.

What About Installation Practices?



In the cabling industry, the quality of the products and lay out plans are

as important as the quality of installation. A world-class product can never

give the desired performance levels unless the installation is also world class.

Unlike electrical wiring, not everyone can do structured cabling installations.

The skill sets are different and it requires good extensive training before any

one can take up the job. Moreover, with cabling having almost a 15-year cycle,

no one would like to rip off the existing cable just because the installation

was not done properly.

Further, with 10G standards having not ratified yet and

companies offering warranties up to five or six years after ratification is

done, this comes in the form of 'warranty subject to installations as per

company standards'. Normally, every structured cabling vendor has it own

training programme and they work very closely with system and network

integrators along with the customers on the installation, design and maintenance

of the cables. For the Indian market, this works fine. The problem arises when

multinational companies or when vendors look for markets abroad and they ask for

certified cable installers. The concept of certified installers does not occupy

mindshare in India, so the bar or level of installation often does not match the

world standards.

Last year, India became BiCSi district with 100 stakeholders

from the cabling industry joining hands to create and increase awareness about

the best practices in structured cabling design and installations. "The

vendors are leaving no stone unturned in terms of creating awareness for

everyone knows and believes that educating customers is the first step to

marketing," said Rajesh Kumar, country manager, The Siemon Company.

Today, there are over 130 members of BiCSi in India. BiCSi

offers a number of courses for the design and installation of low voltage

systems. It offers registration programs for Registered Communication

Distribution Designer (RCDD), LAN specialist and multiple training and education

courses for the installer/designer/consultant/builder communities.

"BICSI of course is playing a huge role in getting all the

vendors under single roof and allowing them in putting up the joint effort in

educating the Indian Industry. It conducts various educational programs and

conference keeping in mind the overall growth of the industry," says

Pinjarkar.

There is no doubt that Indian customers are very aware of

structured cabling as even the smallest offices have 4-5 PCs on a LAN. However,

BiCSi brings structured third party knowledge to India. "Right now

propagation of BiCSi is happening and we are encouraging people to take various

exams and tests to make them certified," says Mohan.

The companies affiliated to BiCSi do not have any brand interest

and it is purely a training and education effort. "BICSI is playing a major

role in educating the industry about standards and good installation

practices," says K Bala Chandran. The tests and training programmes

conducted by the group is not easy to clear and there are only two RCDD designer

installers in India. This has helped the group to maintain its high standards.

However, there are vendors like Tyco who are not part of BiCSi

and conduct their own training programmes. "We have invested heavily on our

training programmes and have almost 1200 certified installers in India. We

maintain the world-class quality in our products and the training programmes. I

am not very sure what additional value BiCSi would add. However, it is a good

effort," says Shetty.

So the differences remain towards creating standard certified

installation and design programmes. Perhaps the changes would happen when

enterprises and customers start demanding for certified installers at the time

of their tenders itself. All this would take the SLA based deals to new heights.

To the CIO



The various cable standards and number of players in the market is most

likely to leave the network manager or the chief information officer confused.

Add to this, the pressure to reduce the capex while optimizing opex in the long

run.

It is said 70% of the network related problems come due to

erroneous selection of cabling components, which hardly contribute 15% to 18% of

total networking budget, this is good indication for network managers not to

judge their investments on cable pricing and suffer in the long run.

Before evaluating a structured cabling solution for deployment,

the CIO or the CTO should know his network well enough. Besides, he should have

a fair idea of the requirements that are going to emerge in the future. Having

understood the load that his network may have to face, say 10 years from now, he

should decide on a solution that best meets his requirements.

At the same time, this futuristic solution (supposed to be the

latest in terms of structured cabling standards/categories available) that he

chooses should not cost him a bomb in terms of purchase, installation and

maintenance. It is important to use all the latest approved and ratified

standard based technologies in their solutions and allocate a good budget for

the cabling infrastructure rather than under evaluating the importance of having

good cabling infrastructure.

The TCO, which is sum of the cost of acquisition and recurring

costs, should be low at all times. There is no harm in having bandwidth that is

more than required for a couple of years before the network starts experiencing

the real load it is scaled for. Secondly, the solutions offered by different

vendors should be compared feature-by-feature. This will help understand what

fits the required scenario the best and where all the existing investments can

be protected.

A close look at the track record of the system integrators

empanelled with the structured cabling vendor is also important for the solution

which may be good in terms of features but the way it has been deployed also

matters.

The products should meet international standards and large

installations like data centers, which run the critical business functions,

intelligent cabling solutions, should be used. Single vendor solutions from

reliable and leading vendors are best as these eliminate errors that may develop

while using multi-vendor products.

One should keep in mind that the network installer is a

vendor-certified/trained engineer and offers an effective network solution that

is easy to implement and support. It should also be evaluated if the portfolio

of solutions offers future-proofing its network and complementary solutions such

as cable management etc.

Anurag Prasad

'Chief facility manager would help create smart offices'

K Bala Chandran, managing director, India and SAARC, Krone

Communications

K Bala Chandran

What new is happening in structured cabling business in terms

of technology and new category of cables?



Intelligent cabling systems are the hot favorite today. As we see the

emergence of multi-location facilities, large campuses, and buildings, the

importance of effective management of valuable network resources has become very

critical. The need to troubleshoot remotely has gone up considerably. The latest

in structured cabling systems are the new features that include higher security

to the user and a stronger interoperability platform.

Even after so much hype, 10G adoption rate has been not very

high. Why?



Though the adoption rate might be low for 10G, it is happening now. Just

like people are moving from Cat5E to Cat6 for better performance and higher

capacity, people would adopt 10G. There are two things standing in wide spread

recognition of 10G over copper. One is the ratification of the standard itself

and other is the absence of ports and switches. With companies like Solar Flair

and Foundary making move towards this, ports should be in the market very soon.

And we are expecting the standards to be ratified by 2006. Today high capacity

customers like data centers are buying 10G and as volume picks up cost of 10G

electronics would come down giving it the necessary punch.

India is a price-sensitive market. How do price and new

technology go together?



In structured cabling industry, quality of installation influences the

performance of any good product. With BiCSi training and education to installers

and integrators and the tremendous response to such organizations is an

indication of awareness about installation skills here. Trained and skilled

installers are getting recognized along with the good products in India. But it

is equally true that in India cost is a bigger consideration than standards. But

this will change with improvements in skill sets and as people realize the

importance of a good product.

What is the status of power over Ethernet in India? What is

happening globally in this field?



The growth in PoE is directly linked to the rapid growth in IP-based

applications (telephony and video). Globally the groundwork is already laid for

PoE because the vast majority of businesses have Category 5 LAN that can accept

PoE with no changes and also because LAN cabling is increasingly available in a

number of common work.

'The market is moving more towards becoming SLA based'

KK Shetty, country manager, AMP Netconnect

What is growth rate of the structured cabling business in

India and how do you expect it to grow in the future?



Currently the market should be around Rs 300-350 crore with a growth rate of

18-20%. But for Tyco, it has been one of the best years and with a very high

growth rate. For the industry till 2008-2010 no problem is foreseen in the

growth rate. I expect minimum 12% growth, which may go up to 36%, based on

various conditions. The growth of structured cabling can be gauged by the PC

sales and developments in the IT sector. If the finance minister talks of eight

mn jobs in the IT sector, then we have a reason to cheer. Because even by

conservative estimates, a 12% growth will take place.

KK Shetty

Which market verticals are buying structured cabling?



Vertically IT & ITeS and the financial institutions are the biggest

buyers. They are followed by the government and the corporates. The education

institutions are also not far behind. The manufacturing sector has been laying

low. But they are showing signs of revival and are expected to be big buyers in

next couple of years. More than anything for us 40 % is repeat business.

Geographically Bangalore is still the biggest market but Chennai and Kolkata are

fast picking up followed by places like Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Noida, Chandigarh,

Jaipur, Pune and Mumbai. In a nut shell where ever infrastrcture is being built

structured cabling is showing good growth. Especially in places where data

center, disaster recovery sites and software development centers are coming up.

How do you see BiCSi increasing the market acceptance of

trained installers?



BiCSi would certainly improve installation standards in India as they are active
in training and educating industry professionals. However, Tyco has been putting

money into training centers and educating installers and customers on its own.

We already have 1,000-1,200 trained installers in India. More over our focus has

been on better design and world class installation rather than pushing products

in the market. We try to improve quality and add value through these centers. If

BiCSi would add value over and above what Tyco has being doing it is good. But

over all it is a good effort at least people are waking to the fact of improving

installation quality.

Like other segments of networking where the focus is more on

services, will structured cabling also move towards this?



The market is moving towards intelligent infrastructure and its integrated

management. Real time logs of unutilized cable capacity, online status report

and computer based management would be the call of the day. We work with our

integrator partners for services. But slowly the customers are defining the

service level from the installations being made and market is becoming more SLA

based.

'Cat6 would slow down once 10G standards are ratified'

Ashish Chand, country manager, India and regional manager-SAARC,

Belden CDT

What are the trends in structured cabling industry?



Continued adoption of Cat6 for new installations, however, this is expected

to slow down once 10GB standards are ratified. Serious end users are moving away

from low quality solutions that were widely adopted in the 2002-04 period. This

is because of poor results from these products. However, end users expect MNC

brands to become increasingly competitive.

The cabling companies have come out with products ahead of

ratification of standards. Why do you think clients should invest in 10G kind of

technologies when there are neither standards nor any uses for these cables?

Ashish Chand

In a network, cables, switches and software riding them are

the main components. Cables typically have 7-8 year life cycle, switches have

2-3 years and software one year. On the investment side, software takes up

maximum and needs to be upgraded more frequently. Estimates show that though

cables eat up less that 5% of the network cost, once installed, it is not easy

to rip and replace them frequently. So the network manager has to evaluate and

buy according to future requirements. So if he buys standardized cables for his

current requirement and wait for the higher bandwidth ones to be ratified he

might end up spending more. Moreover the warranty, which accompanies these

cables, ensures that clients are not at a loss while buying products like 10G

taking into account their future needs.

What is your presence in the Indian market?



Belden CDT has been in India since mid-2003. We address the technology

conscious markets across segments and have been very successful in penetrating

key customer accounts, especially in IT & ITeS and Banking. Today, we have

over a 4% market share in structured cabling for data networking and this is

growing steadily. In 2004, Belden CDT introduced the high end Belden IBDN

end-to-end solutions for copper and fiber that provide guaranteed performance

over standards. These solutions have been widely appreciated and adopted.

What category cables are selling more in the market?



Installation of cables depends on the requirement of the customer. Currently

for 10G over copper, switches are not available and should be out by the first

half of 2006. Today there are no commercially available instruments or standards

to measure cross talk in 10G cables. Fluke has tested with two cables but not

with a bundle of 10-12 cables. Once these pain points are removed, then its sale

should pick up though it is being sold now also. But most of them prefer Cat6

now. However, for up to 1G requirements, CAT5e is a good choice. Today Cat6A is

using the 1G switching but has 10G capacity. Just as it happened between Cat5

and Cat5e, Cat6 may also be pushed out on price points when compared to Cat6A.

'Indian users can compare vendors well'

Vikas Pinjarkar, general manager, SCS, Business Development,

D-Link India

How has the market responded to 10G and Cat7 cables?



Although the news of 10G brought a wave of excitement in the market, the

industry and the customers are yet reluctant to buy these products till the

standard gets ratified. Cat7 is also yet to find customer base in India due to

its high price and STP version.

Where do you see the industry going when it comes to the

price of 10G over copper and fiber?

Vikas Pinjarkar

This is a simple demand and supply situation. For 10G copper,

the technology is new, cables and components need special treatment for

installation practices, active components are expensive hence the solution is

beyond normal reach, specific to note present copper and plastic prices are at

their historic high, however as we had seen in Cat6 few years back the trend

would follow. As regards fiber, the price has never been as low, hence we see an

upsurge in fiber installations though here again the deciding factor is the

active component prices.

How has the real estate market responded to the concept of

smart homes and smart offices?



As I have mentioned in the previous question, SOHO and Intelligent apartment

concepts are getting very popular beyond metro cities. Availability of common

wiring for CATV, Phone/intercom, Data and Alarm is looked in by real estate

business as a necessity. Even standardizing authorities like EIA/TIA, BISCI have

enlarged SCS horizon to address these end uses.

How aware are the Indian buyers about structured cabling?

Where does BiCSi figure in all this?



Fortunately Indian structured cabling market is very matured. The users

understand their needs perfectly and know the points of comparing the vendors.

It is no more a concept selling and the buyers look at the cabling procurement

as seriously as any other products.

BICSI of course is playing a huge role in getting all vendors

under single roof and allowing them in putting up the joint effort in educating

the Indian Industry. It conducts various educational programs and conferences

keeping in mind the overall growth of the industry.

What is the status of power over Ethernet in India? What

is happening globally in this field?



PoE IEEE 802.3 af is a ratified standard and presently it is a most heard of
standard. As the wireless and VoIP market is growing, the use of PoE technology

has started gaining momentum. There are more than 200 products that are sold in

the world market that support PoE. Interestingly D-Link has been making

world-class PoE compatible products.

'We cannot afford to delay introduction of new technologies'

Rajesh Kumar, country manager, The Siemon Company

What new standards and technologies have been introduced

and are selling in the market?



In the recent past, what has been most noticeable is the introduction of

standards like 10GE-over-copper. There have been many early deployments of

10G-over-UTP and Cat 7 as well which augurs well for the times ahead. Another

new technology that has emerged is the PoE but it is still too early to see some

significant deployments of this.

Where do you see the industry going when it comes to the

price of 10G over copper and fiber?

Rajesh Kumar

Let's not look at this from a price perspective. Once the

IEEE, which is currently working on the 10G-UTP standard, ratifies this, it will

be called Augmented Cat 6 or Cat A6 and will witness far more deployments than

today. Businesses may deploy this even at the backbone level and this is where

it will compete with the fiber. However, if you are to still compare it with

fiber in terms of cost, it is going to be cheaper when it comes to the cost of

acquisition, installation and maintenance. The total cost of ownership (TCO)

will be lower than fiber.

How has the real estate market responded to the concept of

smart homes and smart offices?



The real estate market has responded well to the concept of intelligent

buildings, smart homes and offices which are pre-wired. It is primarily owing to

the demand of the buyers that the architects and builders are wiring the

projects they work on. So much so, that soon it is fast becoming an integral

component of modern construction. Customers want network-ready offices from the

day they move in. It is an important value-addition that most builders are

offering, not to forget the premium they have come to command in doing so.

Almost all structured cabling vendors in the country therefore are concentrating

their marketing efforts towards builder-architect lobby such that they endorse

their brand.

How aware are the Indian buyers about structured cabling?

Where does BiCSi figure in all this?



Indian buyers are well aware of structured cabling systems as a concept.

Over the years there have been thousands of deployments of Cat 5e and Cat 6 in

India raising the awareness levels further. IT managers are faced with a dilemma

considering the slashed budgets whether to go in for a solution that will need

replacement after a few years or to future-proof their investments with

something as advanced as 10G-UTP. In this light, the growing acceptance for 10G

is heartening. The vendors are leaving no stone unturned in terms of creating

awareness for everyone knows and believes that educating customers is the first

step to marketing. Owing to all this, the awareness level of Indian buyers

towards technologies like 10G-UTP and Cat 7 is particularly high.

"Intelligent cabling management systems and 10G over copper have a promising future"

SA Mohan, general manager, Sales and Marketing, Molex India

What are the trends in structured cabling industry?



Acceptance of Cat6 is faster than anticipated for copper systems. For fiber,

10 Gigabit capable OM3 (multimode fiber) and Singlemode "Low water

peak" fibers are preferred for the building and campus backbone

respectively.

What new standards and technologies have been introduced

and are selling in the market?



With respect to new technologies, 10G over UTP is the latest development.

IEEE 802.3an, the standard for this technology is still in draft stage and may

take another two years for ratification. Demand for this is still low, though

customers have evinced interest in this product line for use in specific

applications e.g. data centers/server rooms/SAN etc. Most vendors have launched

an augmented Category 6 system, which supports this application.

What is the status of PoE in India? What is happening

globally in this field?

SA Mohan

PoE is being deployed for specific applications like VOIP

with midspan and endspan devices. Deployment may increase as new

applications/equipment are launched.

How has the market responded to 10G and Cat7 cables?



Deployment of 10G is mostly in campus/building backbones and fiber is the

preferred media at the moment. The Cat7 standard is still in draft stages, as a

result products/performance is still being defined. There are not many enquiries

from customers for this product as there are no specific applications, current

or planned, which need a Cat7 system.

Where do you see the industry going when it comes to the

price of 10G over copper and fiber?



As the volume grows, there is a reduction in product prices. For 10G over

copper, we expect the demand to pick up once the relevant IEEE standard

(802.3an) standard is ratified and commercial deployment of active equipment

increases. 10G over fiber was ratified over three years back (IEEE 802.3ae) and

both MM & SM fibers are commonly available for the same.

What new is happening in structured cabling business in

terms of technology and new categories of cables?



Intelligent cabling management systems & 10G over copper are going to

have promising future as they mature. Currently, we are witnessing a high growth

rate but the market is still not mature. The next two-three years would be more

exciting and the growth curve would also be on the rise. The industry would be

witnessing a next phase of technology uptake and adoption.

'We will go slow with our products in India'

Gaurav Ahluwalia, country manager, India, Reichle De Massari

(R&M)

R&M has been operating in India through its

distributor. What prompted the company to look to Asia for business?



The Asian market has been growing at a rapid pace. After much evaluation and

analysis, the company decided to venture into the Asian market. We already have

substantial business in Europe and Middle East markets in the enterprise and

carrier space. Here we would be focusing on India, China, Japan and Korean

market. And from the India office, we would be tapping Sri Lanka and Bangladesh

too.

Now that the company has decided to enter the Indian

market, what are your plans for expansion?

Gaurav Ahluwalia

We are still evaluating the market and would start with

enterprise customers who care for quality products rather than cost. We would

definitely increase the headcount and open a liaison office and other regional

offices to cover all of the Indian market.

What kind of market share are you looking at?



We would not be flooding the market with our products for sure. We would go

slow here and concentrate on the niche market segments. Both in Europe and

Middle East, we started from scratch and gained a big market share riding on the

quality and design features of our products. I would like to repeat the success

story here also. Initially, with top enterprise customers 4-5% share, which

should go up to 10-12% as our products gain acceptance here.

What new standards and technologies have been introduced

and are selling in the market?



10GBASE-T based on IEEE 802.3an standard is currently introduced to the

market. This new standard is likely to be released in June 2006. Today's main

applications are Gigabit switch uplinks for data center interconnect. In the

horizontal zone, it is being installed to support high bandwidth applications

now and also to prepare for future applications coming in the next 10 to 15

years. These links are less than 100m where fiber solutions are much higher in

cost.

Why is the market acceptance for Cat6 cables more than

that for Cat7?



For new installations, 10GBASE-T is starting to be specified in projects,

especially from customers who want to ensure that their system will be ready for

future high bandwidth needs. 10G is also important in data centers, in the

backbone and for companies which work with very large data files, such as

medical imaging. Cat6 and Cat7 cabling is in the market for the last seven years

and will therefore be a significant installed base during the life cycle of

10GBASE-T products.

Due to the increased signal bandwidth of 10GBASE-T from 250

to 500MHz based on cat6 cabling, the advantage of cat7 is diminishing. Without

question, due to reduced attention and improved shielding characteristics, cat 7

cables provide performance for the future, and the additional cost is minimal

compared with the overall costs. The problem is with the cat7 connectors.

Two standardized but mutually incompatible systems are

available: either IEC 60603-7-7, which is based on RJ45, or IEC 61076-3-104

based on a completely new design. This means that you have to decide on one

system or the other, both of which are standardized but which also have all the

disadvantages of a proprietary solution.

And, as long as the terminal equipment is not fitted with the

corresponding cat7 connectors, hybrid cables will be needed. And at the very

least, the end with the RJ45 plug will downgrade the channel back to cat6 again.

This explains why until now, the market acceptance of cat7 has been very low,

with only a 0.4% market share in 2004.