Fiber Optics will Play a Crucial Role for High-Speed Connectivity

What is your go-to-market approach? 

There are three functions for this business. One is the acquisition, which is the biggest one to get to builders. We go directly to them. We have all the knowledge to be able to do that. Second is sales, which we do ourselves. Third is planning, which we also do in-house.

We depend on the partner for the execution part. Execution: We also to the system integrators; we give them a plan, and they do the services part. 
For services. I'm sure there must be many partners because every city has a various number of partners. I think the number should be around hundreds plus.

How is optical fiber infrastructure transforming the telecom ecosystem, and what challenges do you face in its adoption?

Earlier, we were using copper cables, but they had limitations, especially in terms of speed, particularly with the advent of 4G and 5G. Now, as users, we are accustomed to speeds of 100 to 200 Mbps, and we are now aiming for 500 Mbps to 1 Gbps.

We are even discussing 6G and 7G technologies. Fiber will continue to play a crucial role as it is essential for high-speed connectivity. There is no replacement for fiber. RANext is working to address broadband challenges. The services we use today—IoT devices, AI, 5G, machine-to-machine communication, and more—depend on fiber infrastructure.

The use cases for fiber are continuously evolving. For example, to provide CCTV coverage across an entire residential society, facilitate electronic doors, door phones, locks, security, and surveillance, fiber is required as the backbone for all these services. 

Since the backbone remains the same, we are building a national IP infrastructure. On top of that, different layers of services can be added. Of course, challenges remain. The fiber market is more than two decades old and is primarily controlled by telcos and ISPs. These companies often prefer to manage infrastructure themselves, making it difficult to convince them of the value we bring.

One of the primary concerns they have is, "If we are laying the cable ourselves, can we make everything operational from day one? Why should we share infrastructure with you?"

It took a significant amount of time to reach the stage where ISPs and telcos began to recognise the advantages we offer. Recovering investments and maintaining infrastructure remains a challenge. Educating ISPs was the biggest challenge, but fortunately, we have now overcome it. 

Are there any other players apart from RANext in this domain? Are you also involved in manufacturing?

No other company has a dedicated focus on this domain. Some companies handle fiber build-out on a small scale, covering 10, 20, or 30 sites, but no one is working with a focused approach like ours.

Regarding last year's performance, the business is still in its early stages. Initially, we focused on ramping up operations to reach the desired scale. Moving forward, we expect to generate steady revenue.

On the key parameters we track, we achieved 4X growth last year. We deployed fiber at approximately 400 sites. We will confirm the precise figures later. Our goal is to expand exponentially and reach 1,000 sites soon. Over the next couple of years, we aim to achieve one million home passes. We are currently scaling at a 4X rate.

As for manufacturing, no, we do not manufacture fiber infrastructure ourselves. We procure all materials from the relevant departments. Given the scale of our operations, we do not need to engage in manufacturing directly. Instead, we prefer to let the industry grow collectively.

What key factors do you think have contributed to your growth? And how are you going to sustain it? 

Timing the market is the first. Second, the adoption of data. Thanks to COVID, because of Netflix, Amazon and others, data consumption has gone much higher. Hence, the adoption of the internet has gone up exponentially.

I think that this is the right time. When we talk about AI, we are talking about gaming; everything needs time. Then you need the right infrastructure to make it happen.

It's the timing. In the COVID, we realised the importance of the Fiber infrastructure. This was the time when people were losing their businesses; they were thinking about what to do next, and our world was going to collapse. But I think this was the time when we thought that, I think this is the right time to enter into business.

Timing is the key. After COVID, we have seen that there is a surge in demand globally, which is helping us now. Old builders, it's always difficult to get in their life, but now they also realise that they need the infrastructure to pull the users.

We talk about water and electricity, but people talk about connectivity, be it mobile or computers. This is something helping us.

How are you enhancing security in residential and commercial buildings through VDPs? 

VDP is one of the offerings that we are giving to the builders. The reason is the same because fibre infrastructure remains the same, which is owned by us. There is no need to invest additional funds because when we plan on day one, we keep up the vision for additional services, be it CCTV or VDP and other services.

What we do is, from case to case, the builder wants us to deploy a VDP or CCTV program. We charge for them as SI; it's a one-time revenue, but at the same time, we get revenue for a lifetime because ultimately, the infrastructure belongs to us. 

Ultimately, we are adding value to builders and end users, as well as telcos. We are not an ISP, and we are not going to compete with anybody. We are just trying to take out the pain from their balance sheets and their life, and just make it simple.

What are the plans for the next year? Any partnerships you are looking forward to? 

We are expecting a 4X growth in the next 18 months to 24 months. We are in touch with various other discussions; maybe in a month, something new will come up. We want to be known as a digital platform. 

Our country talks about smart cities, but we need to have the infrastructure, which will support the services. Digital infrastructure is fine, but I think we should take the baby steps to reach there. This is what we are trying to do.

It will further expand tomorrow, but yes, we are waiting for that. Also the same, we are putting up a lot of infrastructure, so yes, more innovation will come. We will have many more customers.

How much are SIs contributing to the RANext technologies? What is their role? 

Without system integrators, we can't do that, because maintenance belongs to them. We are the ones who do maintenance work. They are the ones who supply goods to us. They are the ones who are giving services for installation.

The only missing part is, I think as a country, we are not investing in training and skills. We are still doing things in this regard. We are trying to educate them to be future-ready.

You are going to get the same money, but if you do it nicely, it will go into the system for the long term. Industry will help, and we will also get the benefit of that, and you will get more business in return.

But yes, if you ask us, without them, we can't do that, anything. There are a lot of things, a lot of value they are adding to our lives. 

Elaborate on the training and the enablement part. And are there any set criteria for SIs to join RANext?

We provide training. Our employees, those who work in the safety of it, for communication and of course, to our partners as well. It's always easier to catch hold of them, but I think the first thing is to invest time.

Tell them what quality you are looking at and how to make it happen. We do invest heavily in that. 

We follow a very simple process. But yes, we look for what the vision they are carrying is, what they are here for because when we are here for 20 years, we also look for a partner, those who have a long-term dream.

Changing partners, within the city and the buildings, is not easy at all. We see a long-term vision; if the partner has a vision, he should be clear about what he wants in the long term; this is the biggest criterion. I think, when there is an intent, then everything else is possible.

I can give training to 100 partners, but those who want to learn pay attention to those who are excellent. If you want to go for formalities, it's okay; it's your loss, but I think the only criterion is the intent. It's only about mainly execution; safety is the key to this.

For those who don't care about accidents, I think it's probably not something we are looking at. 

-  Jointly narrated to Ankit Parashar

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