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'We guarantee stability of prices, thus ensuring healthy earnings for partners'

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DQC News Bureau
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Krone’s AccessNET and PremiseNET solutions were very little heard of in the

marketplace until recently. But Bala Chandran, MD, Krone Communications, has

changed all that and managed to increase the brand recognition for Krone

products. He has spearheaded his team to create an impressive marketshare for

Krone with a cumulative revenue growth of over 200 percent in the last three

years. He tells DQCI that this growth has come through consolidated efforts of

its channel network and high-quality products.

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Which products from Krone are sellig hot in the market?



Krone Communication’s PremiseNET range of solutions accounted for Rs 14 crore
in revenues. Today, we are one of the top five Premise networking solutions

companies in the country. Krone’s strength lies in its TrueNet-based solutions

on fiber in the vertical and horizontal market segments. It is now looking

forward to consolidate its market presence with an array of active components

introduced in its portfolio of data solutions.

Bala K Chandran, MD, Krone Communications Ltd

Channel partners are increasingly complaining about shrinking margins. How

is Krone addressing this issue?



It’s a highly competitive business that the channel is dealing in. We want

our partners to make good profits on the Krone products they sell. The channel

is a very critical link for our growth. We are committed to enhancing

productivity of channel partners by continuously offering state-of-art solutions

to help them grow as the needs of customers grow.

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We are also focused on guaranteeing product availability and stability of

price, thus bringing in healthy earning for our channel partners.

What are Krone’s strengths when it comes to selling through the channel?



One of our major strengths is that we have our presence right across the

country offering a wide range of structured cabling solutions. We are directly

present in most states with an equally strong channel network.

Apart from offering direct support to our channel partners, we also roll out

joint promotional activities for them to grow. Krone also has the necessary

skills and infrastructure to support its partners directly.

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Currently, we operate through a two-tier channel network, which consists of

regional distributors and resellers. We also have strategic alliances with SIs

who act as solution providers for network connectivity.

Which market segments is Krone targeting currently?



Our technology is market-driven and our solutions appeal to businesses large

and small. Our PremisNET range provides building blocks for a backbone and

campus solutions for medium to large enterprises as well as easy-to-install

solutions for the growing small business and residential markets. Customers in

education, health, corporate, government, call centers, banking and finance,

hospitality and tourism industries use our solutions.

PremisNET’s wireless family of products appeal to mobile workers in large

or medium enterprises, small businesses or SOHO segments. For more than 20

years, our AccessNET copper products have been the standard for Australia’s

major telecommunication carrier, Telstra, and other major carriers the world

over. More recently, our extensive range of copper and fiber solutions have been

embraced by newer carriers and ISPs.

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Is ‘fiber to the desk’ becoming a reality?



Generally, in contemporary installations, copper is used for horizontal

distribution and fiber connects the closets to the main equipment room. Clearly,

this makes sense given the high bandwidth available in fiber and its smaller

size, which enables easy routing between closets.

Because backbone capacity should be greater than desktop capacity and since

desktops have only recently been making the wholesale switch to 100BASE-T, the

migration to a fiber Gigabit Ethernet backbone is on the horizon.

As 1000 BASE-T to the desktop becomes widespread, the next natural

progression will be to a 10Gbps fiber backbone. In fact, at this stage, fiber is

the only cabling medium recognized in the draft standard for 10Gbps Ethernet.

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However, the growth in demand for more bandwidth will see fiber deployed out

to particular zones or departments within the building with copper running from

these zones to the desktop.

How will the deployment of fiber help organizations in improving their

productivity?



A key factor in this scenario is the capability to remotely manage switched

hubs. No longer will IT personnel need to physically check each port in each

closet.

The fiber-to-zone configuration enables the network manager to place active

devices closer to users–either to smaller, intermediate telecom closets or

even to small, lockable enclosures near the workgroup.

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Since switches are now available with fiber uplinks and copper ports, it may

be that one device will suffice per workgroup. This strategy works especially

well for large, open office cubicle groups or for very large work areas that

have poorly spaced telecom closets.

Fiber-to-zone is also relatively cost-effective since traffic back to the

main closet is aggregated over just two fibers. In fact, utilising just two

fibers from the zone consolidation point would eliminate the need to run an

individual copper link from each workstation to the closet.

If, in the future, the client decides to implement fiber-to-the-desk (FTTD)

there will already be a fiber backbone out to the workstation zone. Replacing

the short runs to the zone enclosure will be far easier and more cost-effective

than replacing entire copper links back to the closet to implement FTTD.

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How cost-effective will these solutions be?



We anticipate the implementation of these fiber-extending strategies to be

sporadic due to cost factors. An all-fiber network (FTTD) is the most expensive

alternative because of the higher cost of fiber NICs and optical switch ports.

On the other hand, fiber-to-zone costs are lower than FTTD because of the

utilisation of copper hub ports and NICs.

Fiber-to-zone puts companies one step closer to the ultimate upgradefiber-to-desktop.

Copper, however, is well and truly the preferred medium for horizontal

structured cabling installations.

Personally, I do not see this changing in the very near future until the cost

of fiber cabling and connectivity reduces to the level of a copper solution. By

then, copper may well be supporting 10 gigabits.

SUNILA PAUL in Bangalore

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