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FOTE manufacturers seek greener pastures

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CIOL Bureau
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Pragati Simlote

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NEW DELHI: To counter competition from secondary equipment and to stabilize after the economic downturn of 2000-2001, World Fiber Optic Test Equipment manufacturers in North America and Europe have started expanding in the Asia Pacific and other low-cost regions, especially India and China, where the growth potential is tremendous.

According to the latest research by Frost & Sullivan (F&S), worldwide FOTE market revenues totaled $610 million in 2004 and are projected to reach $880 million in 2011.

The presence of secondary or used equipment in the world fiber optic test equipment (FOTE) markets has resulted in the slow adoption of new technologies such as the 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet. Hence, according to the report, participants in the FOTE market need to continuously introduce innovative technologies and products to make the existing ones obsolete and thwart competition.

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In addition, they can offer refurbished equipment — particularly for customers with limited funds — and build long-term relationships with them.

“In this scenario, while larger enterprises concentrate on maintaining their already strong customer base, their small and medium counterparts need to provide more customer-centric solutions to expand their markets,” suggested Frost & Sullivan Research Analysts Sujan Sami and Ayshwarya Deepak. “These companies can also provide client support through software and hardware upgrades, services and spares while simultaneously reducing their own production costs,” they added.

In addition to providing these services, there is an increased need to educate end users about FOTE, to increase adoption. The demand for the latest products with these technologies would be greater with a faster rate of adoption.

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“Sophisticated products find greater acceptability in niche markets as these users are early adopters and are more willing to accept new technologies,” pointed out Sami.

To broaden their product portfolio further, companies are increasingly opting for mergers and acquisitions. This move will ensure product excellence as it not only helps the enterprises survive in an unsteady market but also to make investments and introduce products for maximizing profits.

“Overall, factors such as improvements in the installation and maintenance (I&M) application segment, migration toward triple play, and the growth of the fiber to the curb/home/premise (FTTx) market are likely to spur revenue growth in the FOTE markets,” noted Deepak.

The F&S report also provides detailed revenue forecasts by region and end user. It also looks into the various product segments — optical time domain reflectometers (OTDR), optical light sources (OLS), optical power meters (OPM), optical loss test sets (OLTS), remote fiber test systems (RFTS), dense wave division multiplexing systems (DWDM), and optical spectrum analyzers (OSA). Analyst interviews and executive briefings are available to the press.

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