wiredinUSA April 2015

INDEX

Sanjeev Ranjan ICA India’s MD

Indian connection project

Backbone looks for support

Government boost for Indian copper

Gulf stakeholders’ summit

The international copper association of India (ICA) has said in a statement that the Indian government’s proposal to establish five new 4,000MW power projects is a positive step for the copper industry. “The railway budget had set up a roadmap for reforms, and the tone for the budget has followedmore or less a similar pattern,” said ICA India’s MD, Sanjeev Ranjan, continuing that the government understands a very strong case for improving India’s global competitiveness by focusing on infrastructure. Consolidation and improvement in operations of railways by bringing in better technology will also be a big positive for the copper industry, he said. “We are happy with the government sticking to its vision of “Housing for All” by 2022, which means it will build 60 million homes. This will be a big boost for…building wires for residential applications,” he added.

Share values of Indian fiber optic cable manufacturers are said to be rising, following the Indian government’s announcement of the acceleration of national optic fiber network projects throughout the nation. Known as NOFN, the project uses fiber optic cables to connect villages with broadband, and has boosted the telecom and related industrial sectors in India. The project aims to provide 100Mbps broadband to 250,000 villages by December 2016. Around 750,000km of fiber optic cables are estimated to be laid for the project which will use loose tube cable designs. All manufacturers of optical fiber cables in India follow the same design to provide multi-vendor compatibility for competitive price and faster delivery options. Optic fiber cables and accessories are procured through a tendering process. To date, cables have been laid in about 5,000 villages, but the slow roll-out of the project has met with criticism.

Telecoms industry leaders meeting in Dubai have discussed challenges to subsea cabling expansion in the Gulf regionandunderlined theneed for greater collaboration among stakeholders. The leaders, attending the inaugural Submarine summit in Dubai, focused on emerging trends in telecommunications and the challenges and constraints in developing a reliable and cost-efficient cable system. They also debated key issues facing the region’s submarine cable sector and formulated strategies for the future. The South Asia-Middle East-North Africa region’s Samena Telecommunications Council hosted the summit, which brought together leading figures from the telecommunications industry, including members of the Samena Council’s subsea working group.

Malawi Telecommunications is seeking local and international telecom companies interested in partnering to operate its nationwide fiber optic backbone. The company said it is looking for private sector players to express interest in the prospective co-ownership of the network to provide a robust infrastructure to facilitate telecom services in the southern African country. The fiber system is the only network that links Malawi to the East African submarine cable system (EASSY), through Tanzania in East Africa and Mozambique in Southern Africa. As in many other countries in Africa, the Malawian government and its partners have failed to provide sufficient funding to meet the growing demand for broadband services. Malawi’s internet sector is reasonably competitive with at least 22 licensed ISPs, compared to just two mobile phone operators currently operating in the country. However, the high cost of bandwidth has held back growth in the sector and has kept broadband access prices among the highest in the region.

ASIA / AFRICA NEWS

wiredInUSA - April 2015

wiredInUSA - April 2015

36

37