'SPs immediately need to streamline their power infrastructure'

What are your views on the power needs of telecom service providers, and
how are they different from other industries?

DC power has been used by telecom operators from the time they have existed.
We bought the power divisions of Nortel, Ericsson, Huawei and Marconi.
Previously the power business was with large OEM manufactures, who decided they
were not experts in it. Total spend by telecom operators on power varies between
1-6% of total expenditure. But the impact of this spending is lot more in terms
of their business.

What are the challenges before service providers?

As the network becomes more complex and operators move into the space where
they need to provide more content to generate more revenues, the need to
streamline their power infrastructure becomes important. The challenge is even
more for operators who are rolling out or planning to roll out 3G networks. This
would mean more cell sites, and power requirements will go up. We have the
expertise to help operators overcome their power infrastructure worries.

What are your offerings for new operators?

For new operators we offer an entire suite of solutions which include
cabinets, thermal management, power management, backups, monitoring, total
environment enclosure, and all this packaged together at a very low cost. We
have solutions to help operators who plan to offer new solutions and help them
leverage existing power solutions without having to spend a lot of money. 

How are you placed vis-à-vis your competitors in India?

India is one of the fastest growing markets for us in Asia, excluding Japan.
We were slightly late entrants in the telecom market, especially with the DC
business, but we are catching up in terms of market share and hope to be one of
the major player in the Indian market. We are here for the long term and have
long time association with operators to bring costs down in terms of cost of
ownership. 

What are your R&D activities out of India?

We have R&D centers in Pune. Centers are located in China, Brazil, South
Africa, Sweden, US and Canada. We also have an engineering and configuration
center in India where we customize products, meeting local requirements.

Sudesh Prasad

sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in