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TELECOM CABLES: Go by Staying Power

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VoicenData Bureau
New Update

Technology Options

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Service providers are using OFC in the backbone and PIJF on the access front.

But with people opting for wireless technologies on the access, OFC is still the

preferred choice for the majority of new basic service providers in the country.

n Polyethylene

Insulated Jelly-filled (PIJF) Cable:
PIJF is an assembly of a number of pairs of

copper wires. The gap between the pairs of wires is filled with petroleum jelly

to reduce noise and transmission losses. Each line has two wires–one for

incoming and the other for outgoing.

There are two types of PIJF cables in use–solid PIJF cable and foamed PIJF

cable. In case of the solid PIJF cable, the conductor is insulated with solid

polyethylene. This type of cable is presently used in the DoT network. In case

of foamed PIJF cable, the conductor insulation is foamed to form a cellular

cross-section, with a suitable foaming agent.

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Telecom

Cable Manufacturers at a Glance

Rank Company Turnover

(2001-02) (in Rs

Cr)
Turnover (2000-01)

(in Rs Cr)
1 Sterlite Optical Technologies 954.89 763.79
2 Finolex Cables 374.84 315.8
3 Vindhya Telelinks 328.89 368
4 Aksh 231.7 142.54
5 Birla Ericsson Optical 215.95 194.87
6 Usha Beltron 203 216
7 RPG Cables 170 264
8 Paramount Cables 136 163.01
9 Tamil Nadu Telecommunications 128.1 113
10 Bhagyanagar Metals 94 127
11 Telephone Cables Ltd 90 79.5
12 Delton Cables 70.47 83.45
13 Surana

Telecom
69.39 65.08
14 Concepta

Cables
66 97
15 Gujarat Telephone Cables 53 184
16 Sudarshan

Telecom
46.82 9.74
17 Others 900 944
  Total 4,133.05 4,130.78

V&D

Estimate

n Optical Fiber

Cables (OFC):
OFC offers almost unlimited bandwidth and unique advantages over

all previously developed transmission media. OFCs are no longer dominant only in

the transport network or feeder line but have penetrated to a large extent in

the subscriber loop as well. With fiber, one can transmit narrowband, wideband

and broadband communication services to the end-subscriber through POTS, ISDN

phone, video phone, and video-conferencing. Most of the private service

providers are focussing more to provide fiber to the building.

Buying Tips

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n Usage Pattern:

Before buying OFC one should look where it is to be deployed–access or

longhaul. If it is deployed for access purpose than one has to opt for a lower

count fiber. For longhaul purposes like connecting two cities one has to opt for

a higher count fiber as the traffic capacity is on a higher side. Even on the

access front, depending upon residential and commercial users the fiber count

increases or decreases accordingly.

One also has to take into consideration how the cable is to be laid. If it is

to be hanged in the ground than one has to opt for a lighter cable.

n Pricing: The

key buying parameter in government (BSNL, MTNL, and Indian Railways) tenders is

the price as long as the optical fiber cables meet the required specifications.

On the other hand, the private operator, which contributes a small portion of

the overall OFC sales in the country, pays more stress on the quality of fiber.

While buying optical fiber cables, carriers and enterprise customers should

focus more on optical parameters, as most of the problems are due to impurity of

glass and pricing should not be the only criteria.

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n Dispersion

Slope:
Different fiber manufacturers have different dispersion slopes, which is

proprietary. Different OFC manufacturers in the country use different standards,

which is just a marketing issue. Lower the dispersion slope, the better it is.

n End-to-End

Attenuation:
The reduction in signal strength is measured as attenuation and the

unit is decibel (dB). The light passing through fiber will not disperse if the

fiber cladding is uniform throughout the length of the fiber. So attenuation

loss can be minimized if there is uniformity. The permissible limit for 1,310 nm

is 0.38 dB/km while for 1,550 nm it is 0.22 dB/km.

If the attenuation level decreases, it is good, but if it increases then one

has to increase the number of repeaters, which will result in an increase in

transmission cost. In majority of fibers, the attenuation loss varies from 0.19

dB/km to 0.33 dB/km and there is an increase of 0.01 dB/km once the fiber is

transformed into OFC.

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n Attenuation

Under Stressful Condition:
Under this condition, OFC is put under stress and the

cable is tied on either side, and 2.7 Newton weight is applied on both the

sides. The maximum attenuation variation should be 0.4 to 0.5 percent. Once OFC

is relaxed, it comes back to the normal position. Under pressure, the cable

should not break. This is used mainly for duct and buried type of OFC.

The buyer should also look at other mechanical and optical properties like

mode field concentricity (shows how uniform an OFC is), cut-off wavelength,

splice loss, and fiber loss per km (dependent on the transmission equipment).

n Polarized Mode

Dispersion:
This tests the optical characteristics of OFC in polarized mode

whereby one can test how much light goes out and how much light remains inside

the fiber.

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n Chromatic

Dispersion:
It depicts the number of wavelength that is attenuated and the

strength of the signal.

Market Information

The demand of optical fiber cable in the country is going to decrease as

majority of service providers has already deployed a large portion of the

network. It seems OFC manufacturers are now focussing more on VSNL as it is

deploying its NLD backbone infrastructure. With private basic service providers

focussing more on WLL (M) for residential users, the demand for PIJF

(polyethylene insulated jelly filled) cable has also reduced. It seems even BSNL

is planning to focus more on wireless technologies this will further reduce the

demand of PIJF cable in the country. With public utilities companies like GAIL

and Indian Railways deploying telecom backbone there will be additional

requirement of OFC in the country.

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n The JFTC

Market:
As mentioned earlier, the top lines and bottom lines of almost all the

JFTC cable manufacturers were affected in 2001-02. While the top lines suffered

because a number of new manufacturers sprung up last year, the bottom line

suffered because there was at least 15 percent drop in prices due to fierce

competition. As many as 30 new companies, mostly power cable manufacturers and

copper scrap dealers, got into the JFTC business last year, thereby eating into

the established players’ market share. The appearance of so many new players

is basically ascribed to almost nil entry barriers. As most power cable

manufacturers have found it easy to get into telecom cable manufacturing. For

these players, telecom cable was like an incremental business with low

overheads, as they already had experience in the power cable business. What made

life difficult for the existing players was the fact that everybody was fighting

for just one customer–BSNL.

It is estimated that the JFTC capacity in India during 2001-2002 was 1,651

lakh cable km (lckm). The offtake is estimated at 500 lckm, which means that

there was a lot of idle capacity. This naturally puts tremendous pressure on the

manufacturers with many of them being forced to restructure their operations.

BSNL’s offtake was 450 lckm while MTNL bought around 12 lckm. The private

basic service operators and the railways bought the rest. The JFTC off take was

certainly higher than 2000-01. However, the presence of too many manufacturers

proved costly for the industry, especially, the established manufacturers. As

this led to a fierce competition in the segment, the per lckm cost of JFTC

dropped by 16 percent.

Fiber

Selection Guide

All

optical fibers are not alike and they have different characteristics

and are suitable for different applications. There are two types of

fibers–multi-mode and single-mode. In general, multimode is best

suited for premises applications whereas single mode fiber is best

suited for long distance applications.

Attenuation

and bandwidth:
A higher attenuation number means more loss and

therefore poor performance.

Fiber

options:
multi-mode fiber and single mode fiber. Multimode fiber

uses a graded index to minimize modal dispersion. This helps in

maximizing bandwidth while maintaining low attenuation

characteristics. On the other hand single mode fiber not limited by

bandwidth but by attenuation and system cost issues.

Bending

capability:
Banding also has a minimal effect on bandwidth

performance of cable.

Tensile

strength:
If the outer diameter remains same, all fibers

maintain the same physical strength as well as the same handling

properties.

Fiber

coatings:
It helps in maintaining the strength and handability

of the optical fiber.

Component and

system costs:
Fiber choice is increasingly more important as

component cost continue to drop and system performance requirements

increases every year. Thus, it is very important that fiber be

chosen carefully so that it economically meets all reasonable

current and future needs.

n The OFC Market:

In the OFC segment, the demand for OFC increased by an estimated 95 percent.

However, there was a drastic drop in the price of OFC. Value-wise, the market

was especially down in the last two quarters of 2001-02. OFC prices declined

from an average of Rs 5,500 per fiber km (fkm) at the beginning of the year to

an average of Rs 2,000 per fkm at the end of 2001-02. The prices dropped because

of several factors. This included a drop in the cost of optic fiber, domestic

over capacity, global glut as well as competition from new manufacturers. The

price of fiber which was around $80 in the beginning of the financial year

dropped to $20 by the end of the year. This led to a drop of more than 50

percent in the price of OFC. There was plenty of demand but two of the big

private service providers–Reliance and Bharti–met their complete demand

through imports. Reliance, which imported around 15,000 km of 48-fiber,

purchased them through the EPCG route at 5 percent duty. Bharti imported 12,000

km of 48-fiber during 2001-02. In effect, Reliance and Bharti together imported

more than what was locally bought by BSNL, the largest buyer of OFC in India. As

more of the demand is being fulfilled by imports, the balance sheets of the

manufacturers got affected. With the contraction in global demand, the export

market too disappointed the OFC manufacturers. There was a 84 percent fall to Rs

60.33 crore in exports from Sterlite. Similarly, Aksh’s export order of $70

million was canceled midway with the company being able to fulfill orders worth

just $3 million.

OFC manufacturers expanded their capacity though most of them did not expand

on the scale as had been planned earlier. Despite all this, OFC capacity in the

country increased from 3.3 million fckm in 2000-01 to 5.2 million fckm in

2001-02. The capacity utilization also increased to 48 percent from the previous

year’s 33 percent. In India, only two manufacturers–Aksh and Sterlite–have

enough capacity to fulfill the domestic demand but there are too many players.

The new entrants are mainly companies, which were earlier into the JFTC

business. Ironically, while everywhere the OFC market is contracting, it is

still growing in India. There was a 20-25 percent increase in demand last year.

Adding to the glut in the domestic market are foreign manufacturers like

Corning, Fujikura Sumitomo, Lucent, and LG, among others. OFC manufacturers

started the year making what one of the leading players termed ‘obnoxious’

margins. The only bright spot, according to a leading OFC manufacturer, was that

OFC prices are so low now that they are competing with JFTC and pushing out

copper–coaxial cables even in applications like cable TV. Many players feel

that while the demand for OFC in the backbone may have saturated or would be so

soon, there is still a lot of potential in the access market.

The biggest problem that JFTC manufacturers would increasingly face is that

of huge idle capacity. This, in turn, would either force them go out of the

business or drastically restructure their operations. Many of the copper cable

manufacturers might also get into the OFC business.

In 2002-03, the demand for OFC is expected to increase by 20-25 percent to

2.5 million fckm. While BSNL is going to remain the biggest buyer, private

operators like Bharti, Reliance, and Tata, are also likely to procure

significant quantity of OFC. However, even as BSNL and MNTL would continue to

source from the domestic manufacturers, private operators are likely to continue

importing OFC to meet the major portion of their demand.

EXPERTS

PANEL

Sanjay

Badri,
vice president, Finolex Cables Ltd
Umrao

Khivsara,
CFO, Aksh Optifiber

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