Panduit, currently at sixth position, registered a modest revenue of Rs 20 crore and growth of 26.6%, largely due to key orders from IT/BPO. Key accounts included Juniper Networks, Netapp, Motorola, Cisco worldwide and APC worldwide.

Delhi-based Belden CDT clocked a revenue of Rs 19 crore at a commendable growth of 58.3% over last fiscal with over 100,000 connects in FY 2005-06. Its key clients include Reuters in Bangalore, ICICI Onesource, HDFC,  Hexaware, Dell, Google's Hyderabad facility, Cisco Systems, Mindtech, Convergys and Fidelity. Belden is optimistic of achieving 70% growth rate in the FY 2006-07.

TVSICS showed a remarkable growth of 39.1% compared to last year's 15%. It had some impressive deals and completed 100,000 nodes in FY 2005-06. Most of the business came from IT and banking verticals such as IBM and Wipro Infotech. Its most prestigious project on the anvil comes from GMR Industries, a leading infrastructure player that will take up airport infrastructure project in Bangalore and Hyderabad. TVSICS is the chief distributor for R&M (Reichle & De-Massari) cabling solutions in India.

Incidentally, last year, the Swiss-based R&M decided to establish liaison and sales offices in India. In a span of one year, it has grown over 10 times by picking up good business worth Rs 9 crore, in conjunction with TVSICS. Together they will be involved in some key orders in aviation, manufacturing and industrial verticals.

Another blazing performer, Siemon started its operations in India in 2003. Since then, its y-o-y growth has been over 160%. The big order in its kitty is that of Punjab National Bank.

Chennai-based Dax Networks, an Apcom company, looked at a diverse customer portfolio including the UP irrigation department, Technical Education Quality Improvement Program, and Times TV in Mumbai.

Cat 6 Rules Over Cat 5E
CAT6 firmly ruled the roost in FY 2005-06 with an estimated 65% share in the market. Most enterprises with upwards of 1,000 nodes are warming up to Cat 6. Within a year of the standard being ratified, orders for Cat 6 have beaten most market expectations. Even small players like Dax Networks, TVSICS and Legrand have done 60% of their total business on Cat 6 compared to just 30% in FY 2004-05.

Cat 5E is still around, being the favorable choice for most horizontal distributions. From the customer's perspective, since Cat 5E is also capable of Gigabit Ethernet, smaller businesses are satisfied with their existing Cat 5 or 5E cabling systems, and are not too concerned about issues like bandwidth-intensive applications and future proofing.

Belden CDT anticipates Cat 5E orders increasing to about 55% of its total orders in FY 2006-07 as opposed to 35% in FY 2005-06. Other companies that have been dominant in the smaller circles like Molex and Legrand also expect Cat 5E to stay dominant in SME and residential segments. However, they add that even though the number of small projects on Cat 5E is large, the number of ports done on Cat 6 outpaces Cat Ee by a significant margin.

Cat 6A Spurs 10GE
The arithmetic will change for Cat 6 and Cat 5E with Cat 6A appearing on the scene. As network applications become more bandwidth intensive, players anticipate that more evolved standards like Cat 6A will better support the requirements, and it will become the first choice of the technology managers. The much-talked ratification of IEEE 802.3an is expected by June-July this year. Cat 6 has 250 MHz frequency and supports gigabit speeds, whereas the IEEE and EIA/TIA are pushing 600 MHz frequencies in Cat 6E or Cat 7 so that it will support 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

Preparations are visible as prices are being rationalized. Reduction in the price of 10G transceivers is also important to fuel this growth. Bandwidth hungry data centres, server farms and other bandwidth-intensive applications such as education, software development, IT-enabled services, etc, have begun future proofing and scaling up for 10GE.

Big guns-Systimax, Tyco and ADC Krone-are offering key premier products to suit these needs. Last year, Systimax implemented its first 10GBase-T solution at Vimta Labs, Hyderabad. Tyco is pushing for shielded over unshielded as it tackles cross-talk better and overcomes error margins adequately. ADC Krone has added some Indian customers in the first list of global customers for its CopperTen, Category 6A solutions. Initially, Cat 6A was considered for data centres and backbone cabling but now it is being considered for horizontal cabling. With the standards ratification, ADC Krone expects a major shift towards Cat 6A.The company was the first to implement 10G UTP solution in India. Among the smaller players, Siemon had 10% of total orders for 10GE in FY 2005-06, and it has already notched 30% of total orders for 10GE in the current fiscal.

However, most players are being cautious about the hype over Cat 6A. Dax Networks has not yet introduced 10GE solutions. It prefers to wait and watch after EIA/TIA committee approves the standard. Molex, Belden, R&M, and Panduit are among those who feel it's still early days for 10GE and don't expect orders flowing in immediately, even though they are ready with 10GE solutions. The customer is likely to take a closer look before choosing Cat 6A.

Intelligent Cabling and PoE to Drive Growth
The industry is unanimous about the growth of intelligent cabling systems and greater acceptance of Power-over-ethernet (PoE). Intelligent cabling solutions largely suit BFSI clients but its customer portfolio is expanding with new verticals showing interest. Retailers, construction companies and residential builders are on the radar now besides the data centres.

PoE is expected to grow with an increase in the deployment of VoIP and wireless access points. Currently all major players including Systimax, Tyco, ADC Krone, and Molex are offering PoE over mid-span which is largely preferred for existing installations and few end-span solutions for new installations.

Copper UTP cabling will continue to dominate the horizontal cabling subsystem market. Fiber-to-the-Desk (FTTD) will be found mainly in niche applications requiring speeds of 10 Gbps or higher. It will account to a small percentage of the total horizontal cabling subsystem market in the future.

Faster networks will demand greater bandwidth network capacity. The data center will be the primary environment helping to support new applications in data storage and server clustering. Data center applications are expected to migrate to the desktop. Hence, the ability to address this goal is also important to the 10GBASE-T task force group.

Among the new applications, VoIP offers a significant new market opportunity for structured cabling system suppliers. Cable for VoIP applications are predicted to account for the major UTP cable market in the next five years. There is also a growing trend towards interoperability and providing higher security to the user.

Players Get Aggressive
With an intent to increase its market share, Tyco is pushing its intelligent cabling solutions as top priority. This year, it plans to launch in India its other globally available products in the PoE, wireless and cable management domains. By September, the company expects to have an end-to-end PoE product. Its new version of the iTRACS infrastructure management software is suited for customers with complex telecommunications networks and critical applications. It is also conducting trials for high-density cable manager solutions with its customer, Cap Gemini, and will launch it next year.

This May, Systimax Solutions announced the opening of its executive briefing centre in Bangalore, primarily for customers from the SAARC region. The focus is on educating the customer and familiarizing it with the scope of cabling solutions.

D-Link is tackling the technological challenge to design and produce foolproof transmission medium, be it copper, fiber or for that matter, wireless. It is involved in the R&D of active and passive networking products under one umbrella.

ADC Krone's new offering includes a complete portfolio of data-center-grade infrastructure solutions.

Molex plans to double its sales headcount by going aggressive in class A cities like Kolkata, Hyderabad and Delhi. It aims to strengthen its base in class B cities too with the channel partners in Chattisgarh, Nasik, Patna, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Madurai and Cochin, to name a few.

This May, Dax Networks launched PatchSee series of Intelligent Patch Cords. Designed for network administrators in SMBs and large enterprises, it addresses one of the major difficulties faced by network administrators during troubleshooting-identification of required switch ports and user nodes in a network rack.

TVSICS is making big leaps with an order worth Rs 5 crore from ABN Amro to wire up offices in Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata with over 25,000 nodes. With focus on addressing security and installation issues, R&M is introducing enhanced security system for data networks with a lock for RJ45 patch cords.

Siemon recently introduced its new line of MAX Surface Mount boxes in India. These come with multiple built-in cable management features and allow sufficient clearance for a range of cable sizes.

Bangalore-based BNA Technology Consulting is looking at educating the customer and reaching them directly. It recently launched an online support portal www.bnaITmart.com combining e-tailing with a localized support channel across India.

Team DQ
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

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