WCA September 2015

India Insight

India

Insight

Capacity expansion plans for Sterlite

“We are seeing that this demand is proportional to data propagation, and has been increasing, year-on-year, in the last two to three years.

STERLITE Technologies is to invest in further capacity expansion, targeting a major part of the BharatNet project. The national optical fibre network (NOFN) or BharatNet, forms

“It was almost doubling every year, the amount of data which was going through the network,” he said. “Capacity expansion for us has largely happened. Three years ago we were 12 million kilometres, now we are 22 million kilometres. So, for us, capacity is not the issue in terms of supply optical fibres.” Of the optical fibre cable requirement for the BharatNet project, Mr Agarwal said: “Total OFC requirement for BharatNet will be around 50 million kilometres, which will largely be done by us.” Sterlite Technologies – India Website : www.sterlitetechnologies.com

the backbone of the Digital India initiative, which aims to extend high speed broadband throughout India. “This [BharatNet] is a basic thing. Fundamentally, it is to connect India. There is a huge opportunity,” said Anil Agarwal, non-executive chairman of Sterlite Technologies. On capacity expansion, company CEO Anand Agarwal said: “Our facility is global. We already have a capacity of about 22 million kilometres, which we are going to take in stages to 30 million kilometres.” Sterlite has already expanded capacity in anticipation of the demand for more Internet, he added.

❍ Chief executive Anand Agarwal. Photograph courtesy of Sterlite Technologies

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2015