Dialogue-Rajiv Mahajan

Congratulations on the launch of TJ1400 product range. Please elaborate on technology, market share, its application in rolling out broadband services on fiber and wireless, and other aspects.

TJ1400 is the world’s first ultra-converged broadband-access product family that combines wireless and wireline access technologies in one platform. By combining fixed wireless access (LTE eNodeB), fiber broadband access (GPON OLT), and diverse optical transport technologies (MPLS-TP, OTN, IP, CE2.0, SONET/SDH), TJ1400 is able to deliver residential broadband, enterprise services, and mobile backhaul – all from the same shelf. TJ1400 product family is 5G-capable and is designed to support emerging technology standards for mobile fronthaul (CPRI/eCPRI), network slicing (SDN-8.5eady), small-cell backhaul (GPON/10G-PON), and ultra-reliable low-latency communication (OTN).

Your vision on how the telecom sector will pan out in India, and how you will steer your company over the next couple of years.

The industry consolidation in Indian telecom sector is almost over, and we will now have fewer, but larger operators, who will focus on providing high-speed broadband and data services. This explosion in data demand is driving large investments in optical communications equipment in India, especially in the metro and access segment, where we are focused. India has recently emerged as the world’s largest carrier of data traffic and the fastest-growing optical equipment market. As per Ovum, the total optical equipment spend in India will touch USD 1 billion in 2019.

Going forward, with the arrival of 5G, we expect this trend to accelerate further. Besides large private players, government entities in India too are undertaking
pan-India telecommunication projects such as BharatNet, and Smart Cities, that have a large optical networking component. Tejas Networks, expects to benefit from this huge domestic demand.

On your presence in the international market.

We have rapidly expanded our international presence in South-East Asia, Africa, and Americas, and now have customers in 70+ countries. Today, we are one of the top-10 global suppliers in the optical aggregation segment. Our strategy is to increase our sales investments in emerging markets that have India-like needs in terms of affordability, technology, and quality, and where our success in India serves as a great benchmark and reference for customers. Government of India’s increasing focus on promoting high-tech project exports in telecom via the Telecom Exports Promotion Council (TEPC) also opens up new opportunities for us.

The recent global geo-political developments have also created an opportunity for us, since telecom operators globally are diversifying their supplier base to reduce their risks. Tejas, an innovative, cost-effective player, can become a trusted, long-term source for their optical and access equipment requirements.

Please elaborate on your contribution to BharatNet.

Tejas Networks is proud to be associated with the prestigious BharatNet project, which will serve as the backbone of Digital India. We were commended for being the Best Performing Equipment Supply Partner and for our contribution to the success of Phase-I. As a domestic supplier of GPON equipment in Phase-I, we are also playing an important role in Phase-II which is being implemented by the Center as well as many state governments.

Tejas Networks has not yet hit the Rs 1000 crore mark as far as its revenue is concerned, albeit there has been a steady improvement in profits. Yet it has all the prerequisites required to be among the leading vendors in this sector. Please comment.

We truly believe that we have opportunity as well as potential to drive significant growth over the next several years, and cross many revenue milestones. Since we have a strong incumbent advantage in India and are present in almost all large telecom networks in the country, our strategy to increase domestic revenues is to leverage our strong relationships across our customer organizations and capture a larger portion of their optical and data networking spend. Also, post-IPO, backed with a strong balance sheet, we have been aggressively investing to grow international sales revenues which are now coming to fruition. The geopolitical issues too are clearly working in our favor and we have been winning larger business in all our international geographies including with Tier-I and Tier-II carriers.

Anything else you may like to add.

Exponential increase in data traffic in telecom networks around the world requires telecom service providers to upgrade the capacity of their existing fiber-optic networks, and also connect more of their sites on optical fiber. The advent of 5G will create even more demand for data and is expected to further accelerate investments in optical networks.

Our software-defined hardware products are very versatile, built on latest standards and are globally competitive. We closely track industry trends and standards in 5G as well as software-defined networking and are ensuring that we continue to stay competitive. We are also expanding our product portfolio with next-generation PON for multi-gigabit fiber access, LTE-advanced for wireless access as well as Ethernet switches.