Rajesh Kumar, country manager, The Siemon Company

What new standards and technologies have been introduced and are selling in the market?
In the recent past, what has been most noticeable is the introduction of standards like 10GE-over-copper. There have been many early deployments of 10G-over-UTP and Cat 7 as well which augurs well for the times ahead. Another new technology that has emerged is the PoE but it is still too early to see some significant deployments of this.

Where do you see the industry going when it comes to the price of 10G over copper and fiber?

Rajesh Kumar

Let's not look at this from a price perspective. Once the IEEE, which is currently working on the 10G-UTP standard, ratifies this, it will be called Augmented Cat 6 or Cat A6 and will witness far more deployments than today. Businesses may deploy this even at the backbone level and this is where it will compete with the fiber. However, if you are to still compare it with fiber in terms of cost, it is going to be cheaper when it comes to the cost of acquisition, installation and maintenance. The total cost of ownership (TCO) will be lower than fiber.

How has the real estate market responded to the concept of smart homes and smart offices?
The real estate market has responded well to the concept of intelligent buildings, smart homes and offices which are pre-wired. It is primarily owing to the demand of the buyers that the architects and builders are wiring the projects they work on. So much so, that soon it is fast becoming an integral component of modern construction. Customers want network-ready offices from the day they move in. It is an important value-addition that most builders are offering, not to forget the premium they have come to command in doing so. Almost all structured cabling vendors in the country therefore are concentrating their marketing efforts towards builder-architect lobby such that they endorse their brand.

How aware are the Indian buyers about structured cabling? Where does BiCSi figure in all this?
Indian buyers are well aware of structured cabling systems as a concept. Over the years there have been thousands of deployments of Cat 5e and Cat 6 in India raising the awareness levels further. IT managers are faced with a dilemma considering the slashed budgets whether to go in for a solution that will need replacement after a few years or to future-proof their investments with something as advanced as 10G-UTP. In this light, the growing acceptance for 10G is heartening. The vendors are leaving no stone unturned in terms of creating awareness for everyone knows and believes that educating customers is the first step to marketing. Owing to all this, the awareness level of Indian buyers towards technologies like 10G-UTP and Cat 7 is particularly high.