VIAVI Solutions, formerly known as JDS Uniphase (JDSU), is a global leader in both network service enablement and optical security and performance products and solutions. In an interaction with TelecomTiger, Oleg Khaykin, President and CEO, VIAVI Solutions talks about current projects, challenges and future plans. Excerpts from his interview:

1. Pls share a brief on VIAVI operations worldwide and specific to India. Also, what kind of solutions does VIAVI offer to Indian telecom operators?

A. VIAVI Solutions, formerly known as JDS Uniphase (JDSU), is a global leader in both network service enablement and optical security and performance products and solutions. Our technologies contribute to the success of a wide range of customers – from the world’s largest mobile operators and government entities to enterprise network and application providers through to the contractors laying the fiber and building the towers that keep us connected.

Headquartered in San Jose, California, USA, VIAVI’s network and service enablement history can be traced back nearly 100 years. We have built our company up from our roots as pioneers in copper testing to now helping build, monitor, and optimize the world’s most complex service provider and enterprise networks.

VIAVI Solutions has been present in India for more than 20 years now and has been supplying its state of the art technology instruments to Indian telcos, R&D Labs, Defence, Public Sector Units etc.

VIAVI in India is headquartered in Gurgaon with sales offices in Mumbai and Bangalore. Sales, Pre-Sales and Support staff are available at all the locations to address the needs of our customers. The IT Development Centre is in Puneis engaged in design, implementation, maintenance, support, enhancement of sophisticated database systems and enterprise application technologies. VIAVI India has its repair and calibration centre in Gurgaon and our technicians here ensure that our customers’ equipment is functioning properly by completing any maintenance and installing enhancements including engineering change notice updates.

Our SDH Analyser ANT-20 has been the leader in its domain in India and is the first choice of all our esteemed customers here. VIAVI OTDRs and Fibre Optic handhelds are used by all operators, system integrators and contractors in this segment.

VIAVI in India also works with channel partners to educate our customers and deliver superior sales and service support. We work hand-in-hand with partners with a joint commitment to increasing the value of VIAVI instruments, software, and platforms.

VIAVI Solutions is active in the broader industries we serve – partnering with our customers and other key players to enable complex market and technology development and growth across the globe. Our major telecom customers in India are BSNL, MTNL, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Communications and their network equipment suppliers – Ericsson and Nokia.

VIAVI offers a full range of solutions to Indian telecom operators:

• In-line and built-in test and measurement instruments for network equipment manufacturers
• Full network and lifecycle coverage for service providers.
• Performance optimization and troubleshooting for enterprise and cloud providers
• Cable and fiber test equipment that is critical to all new network deployments

We have the most in-depth coverage and knowledge – eliminating finger-pointing in multi-stage deployments and reducing or eliminating engineering costs associated with piecing together disparate equipment to gain full visibility across the network. VIAVI in India has helped many of its telecom customers to increase productivity and efficiency by developing MOPs, optimizing workflows and sharing of global best practices.

2. There is a lot of action on 4G / LTE and operators are gearing up for 5G, likely to roll out by 2020. What is VIAVI’s vision and focus on 5G and IoT, what kind of investments you are doing to maintain that focus?

A. VIAVI is actively working with the world’s top communication providers and other leading organizations from Network Equipment Providers to industry standards bodies to deliver contextually-aware visibility and intelligence needed to plan, test, enable, assure, and optimize autonomous 5G networks with speed and success.

A large proportion of our product and solution portfolio is already directly relevant to 5G networks as they evolve from the lab to the field.  That scope extends from: