VMC Systems Limited, a Hyderabad telecommunications and power-conversion equipment manufacturer, is set to launch its first product based on GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) technology by March.
“Using the GPON technology, our 96-port OLT (optical line terminal) is currently being tested in in-house labs. We expect it to be ready for field deployments by March-end next year,” Murthy Suravarapu, vice-president (marketing), VMC Systems, told Business Standard.
VMC has bagged the manufacturing licence from Centre for Development of Telematics (C-Dot), which has indigenously designed and developed the GPON technology. The products would be co-branded and marketed by VMC and C-Dot.
Braodband connections, at present, are based on DSL (digital subscribers line) technology, which is deployed on copper and provides bandwidth of 256Kbps on average. GPON technology allows bandwidth of 2.5 Gbps (gigabit per second) downstream to end customer located at distances of up to 60 km.
The technology is used to provide triple play services such as voice, video and data, and allows high-speed Internet access, IPTV and cable TV signal through a single optical fibre.
"India currently has more than 20 million broadband customers. Even if we address 10 per cent of the market, we will be addressing 2 million users, apart from the new deployments,” he said.
The company's primary focus would be to approach Internet service providers (ISPs) to reach the end customers and provide them value-added services like video-on-demand and landline phone services out of a single box, he added. VMC Systems recorded a turnover of Rs 1,100 crore in the last financial year.