Nahata further said that HFCL is planning to increase to fibre capacity by 25 per cent to 10 million fibre-kilometer per annum (fkm/pa)
Telecom equipment manufacturing company HFCL is looking to expand its reach in the 5G market and expand fibre capacity, for which it has set aside Rs 200 crore as Capex for FY21. As per a report, it will use it to expand the capacity of its Hyderabad plant and modernising the Goa and Chennai facilities.
A Hindu BusinessLine report said that the New Delhi-based company is HFCL is building a portfolio of 5G products including 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) and 5G transport equipment for domestic as well as for foreign markets such as West Asia, South-East Asia, and Europe to double down on its fifth-generation or 5G strategy.
The 5G RAN portfolio will comprise products as Macro Radio Unit (RU), 5G indoor small cell, and 5G outdoor small cell along with 5G transport products such as fronthaul gateway, cell site router, and aggregation routers. These 5G products will be based on Open RAN standards.
The publication quoted HFCL Promoter and Managing Director Mahendra Nahata saying, “The country is on the cusp of a 5G revolution, and commercial rollouts are expected next year following spectrum allocation, which is expected by the first quarter of next calendar year. About Rs 1.5-lakh crore is expected to be investment in India for 5G rollout, which includes spectrum charges.”
As for fibre and fibre optics expansion, Nahata further said that HFCL is planning to increase to fibre capacity by 25 per cent to 10 million fibre-kilometer per annum (fkm/pa), from the current 8 million fibre-kilometer per annum (fkm/pa) at its Hyderabad plant by the end of this fiscal year.
The company is also ramping up OFC capacity by 22 per cent to 22.5 million fkm/pa by December 2021 from the present 18.5 million fkm/pa.
At the same time, it will increase FTTH production capacity by 20 per cent to 7.2-lakh cable km/pa by September 2021. It works with leading Indian telcos like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel in this space.
