Sterlite Tech to set up optical fiber network for defense services

Pune based Sterlite Technologies, provider of provider of transmission solutions for the telecom and power industries and a part of of Vedanta Group has received a purchase order form Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) for end-to-end deployment including design, engineering, implementation and maintenance of a part of Network for Spectrum (NFS) project - optical fiber cable (OFC) Network in the state of Jammu & Kashmir of the NTP region.

The company is a major partner in creating OFC networks in other regions in the country as a part of NFS rollout, countrywide. This project in Jammu & Kashmir region including optical fiber cable supplies to other parts of the country is expected to add around Rs 1950 crore to Sterlite's order book. This order needs to be executed by 2016. Additionally, Sterlite is also contracted to maintain the Jammu & Kashmir network for an additional period of 7 years at a value of about Rs 500 crore. The current order book of Sterlite is of Rs 4500 to 5000 crore.

Speaking to Business Standard, Anand Agarwal, CEO, Sterlite Technologies said, "The overall sector growth looks positive. We have recently entered in Latin America with a joint venture with Conduspar, a leading cable manufacturer, in Brazil with an initial greenfield capacity of 0.5 million fibre kilo meter (fkm) of optical fibre cables to be ramped up to 1-2 million fkm in the next 2-3 years as market grows. The Brazil plant will be operational by end of September this year. The total annual production capacity of Sterlite will be be 17 million fibre kilo meter (fkm). "

Sterlite holds 6 per cent market share in fibre business and for conductor business it stands at 8 per cent. In India, it has a market share of 35 per cent in fibre and 25 per cent market share in conductor business. The Indian market size of size is 8-9 million kilo-meter of optical fibre while for conductors it is close to 6,00,000 metric tonne of conductors.

He added, "Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) is one of India's most sensitive areas in all aspects of national interest. We take pride in establishing the critical infrastructure in both electronic communication and power transmission. We have recently been awarded a project to establish a power transmission infrastructure in J&K under NRSS 29. We are happy that our capabilities of creating end-to-end infrastructures in Power and Telecom are being put to use in India's critical corridors."

As per the Government of India's policy to release 150 Mhz of spectrum held by defense sector in the frequency range of 1700 Mhz to 2000 Mhz, the company has bagged the project to build a new communication network for exclusive use by the armed forces in lieu of the spectrum. The order is for full rollout of OFC network to be owned and operated by the defense services under the project implementation core group (PICG), Ministry of Defense (MoD). It comprises a highly resilient exclusive OFC based nationwide Optical Backbone for defense sites and access networks at army sites.

"In this precious project, Sterlite is playing an important part in designing, planning and implementation of this countrywide secure, multi-protocol converged network. It is based on dedicated Tri-services Optical Transport Backbone. Sterlite's expertise lies in understanding the geographical profile, network design, product customization and large scale project execution Sterlite's fiber based Intrusion proof solution is designed to create a highly secure network for this critical application," says Agarwal.

The company operates in three business verticals transmission, power and infrastructure. The major contributors are power and transmission. According to Agarwal, the transmission sector is growing at 25 per cent y-o-y again due to 3G and 4G implementation.