PUNE: CAS or the addressability system is all about making set-top box mandatory for viewing pay channels. Said KR Naik, managing director, D-Link (India) Pvt. Ltd, "D-Link has the best manufacturing facilities available in India. Companies approach us for contract manufacturing of their products. Since the facility is already available hence it is easily possible for us to cater to such a need."

However, Naik made it very clear that D-Link's view of the CAS market was restricted to providing its spare capacity for contract manufacturing of CAS devices as an when there is a demand for it. The existing facility at Goa would be used for this purpose, he said. Naik said that the company was also exploring the possibility of acquiring additional space, which could be possibly used for its various products in the near future.

Giving details, Naik explained that in the manufacturing of networking products, the SMT machines are generally used in two-shift basis from point of view of reliability and life of machine. "Whenever there is a sudden spurt in demand the additional third shift is added. If this demand is a long term continued extra demand then the existing machines are upgraded to higher speeds. D-Link has few high-speed SMT lines. In the near future we will upgrade one of the earlier SMT lines to a higher speed," he added.

While some players have expressed interest in using the D-Link facility for manufacturing CAS devices, no special alliance has been worked upon. On the technology front, D-Link would focus on VoIP, Wireless, Cat 6 (SCS) & Gigabit Ethernet. Naik also mentioned that more thrust would be laid on exports, which are expected to grow by 30 percent.
And the major challenges before D-Link in the coming year?

Said Naik, "Challenges in networking business are also viewed as an opportunity as newer technology and products are introduced there is an opportunity to make higher profits, generate higher revenue and enter newer segments besides upsell to same customers." Naik expects the SMT lines for manufacturing for CAS devices to come through sometime next month.