Upbeat on the company’s strong financial results and bagging some major orders including the last mile connectivity contract from Bangalore Airport, MRO-TEK aims to capitalize on the last mile connectivity business. In an exclusive interview with TelecomTiger, S. Narayanan, Chairman MRO-TEK speaks about the revival of wireline services with advent of Triple-play services.

Q1: Triple play has somehow not taken up in India. IPTV is a non starter. What is the reason for this?

Broadband connectivity is vital for ‘‘triple play’ to come in. In India, to deliver ‘triple play’ service we are still looking towards the broadband subscribers to become a critical mass. According to the latest TRAI report on India Telecom Services, the number of Broadband subscribers was 3.13 million at the end of December 2007 as compared to 2.67 million at the end of September 2007. The above said numbers are promising as the growth rate of broadband subscribers is more than 17% in this quarter. Enablers for ‘triple play’ are falling in place at a fast pace in India. Our industry has the equipments and know-how to provide ‘triple play’. The big telecom service providers and the organized cable TV operators are already providing quality ‘dual play’ broadband service.

Q2: What is the market potential for last mile broadband products of MRO-TEK? This is in view of the fact that in India, stagnation has taken place in wire line network.

A wired line is important for providing broadband connectivity at the customer premises. The stagnation in wire line network is because of the increasing acceptability of a wireless connection. This will change as wired line connection can offer many more services rather than just telephony. In future, India will see most of the consumers using their wired connection for a broadband connectivity that will deliver video, high-speed internet and telephony from a single provider under one subscription.

The graph below shows the forecasted subscriber base and household penetration rate for broadband as estimated by the Frost & Sullivan.

It is being forecast that there will be 30 million broadband subscribers in India by year 2013. This is highly promising for us as an enabler in the last mile broadband connectivity.

Q3: What is the reason that telecom manufacturers are not doing well in India; even though the service market is expanding very fast, there are no significant manufacturers in India.

Traditionally, India has always been a follower to the outside world in telecom hardware. We always try to adapt technologies to Indian conditions after it achieves a level of robustness in other countries. With liberalization policy, the advent of Indian manufacturers further took a back seat. How ever the scenario is changing. But it will take some more time to see an Indian telecom manufacturer with a global impact. Government’s favourable taxation policy to the industry can give the fillip.

Q4: What should the government do to encourage R&D activities in India?

Research Industry collaboration is the way forward. Government should encourage industry to interact with universities institutes to set-up incubators which could develop breakthrough technologies. These incubators will bring down time to market of a technology.

Q5: What are MRO-TEK''s future plans?

MRO-TEK is an access networking company which provides even customized solution for varied enterprises. We want to become a key player in the last mile connectivity and in the metro space.

MRO-TEK recently announced a Last Mile Infrastructure Architecture for delivering ‘Triple Play’ service in India. The Managed Access Infrastructure Architecture designed by MRO-TEK is ready for implementation with the products developed in house. The new products Daisy 105M, iRIS-16 and Mogra-208 combined with the Liteview NMS will become part of the Solution. The entire Architecture operates using future proof combination of Active Ethernet and Passive Optical technology providing 100Mbps Speed in the last mile to deliver VoIP, High Speed Internet and DVD quality Video to every user.

With this Architecture, MRO-TEK is poised to be leader of Broadband revolution that India is all set to witness. We will see information, communication and entertainment flowing seamlessly in and out of households in the near future through our devices.