Amid fears of a slowdown in GPON revenue in India by
2015, the state-run Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) will transfer
the indigenously designed and developed Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON)
technology to seven public and private manufacturers.

 

The technology deployment is a part of NTP 2011 and will
help in expanding optical fiber presence in India and fulfill the requirements
of major programs such as national optical fiber network, state-wide-area
network connectivity, broadband connectivity in rural, north east, tribal
areas, as well as expansion of networks of Defence, Railways networks on
optical fiber and many other strategic networks. 

 

GPON equipment revenue is likely to decline in India and
the Middle East by 2015. The slow growth is because major operators including
BSNL in India and Etisalat in the United Arab Emirates already took huge OLT
and ONT shipments in 2009 and 2010 for large-scale GPON FTTH rollouts, according
to Infonetics Research.

Both operators expect to achieve their homes passed goals this year. Future
rollouts will be far more limited in these regions as the focus shifts to
subscriber acquisition, according to a report
by Infonetics Research.

 

Though GPON infrastructure investments currently far
outpace GPON subscriber growth, subscribers to premium broadband services via
2.5G GPON technology are expected to rise at a rapid clip, totaling 8.5 million
by 2015 in India, the Middle East, Western Europe and Central and Eastern
Europe.

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal will be present at
the event to mark the transfer of technology to telecom manufacturers on
Monday.

 

GPON technology is an essential component required for
broadband connectivity over optical fiber which has been tested and validated.
It has also become operational in the BSNL Network at Ajmer and Rajasthan.

 

The ministry said that GPON can be used to provide a
future proof broadband solution to village panchayats and benefits of the whole
gamut of e-services can be reaped by the rural and urban populace.

 

C-DOT is also working on other several important
technologies, namely broadband rural wireless system, next generation networks,
shared GSM radio access network, security programs such as centralized
monitoring system (CMS), secured data communication network etc. 

 

According to Dell’Oro Group, revenues from GPON equipment including both Optical Line
Terminals and Optical Networking Terminals hit a record level for the tenth
consecutive quarter growing 10 percent sequentially and 34 percent over the
year-ago period. Huawei was the top GPON supplier due to its position as
leading supplier to China, followed by Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and ZTE, which
all had significant shipments to China.

 

By Danish Khan
[email protected]