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A s predicted the last few years have seen a reshuffle of regional balances and the emergence of some new mega telecommarkets.Issuchreshuffling abnormal? Many industries have been lost for Europe in the past, from solar panels to display manufacturing. There is now wider acceptance of the importance to retain key enabling technologies in Europe. So the question is does the European optical telecom industry have the right strategies in place (does it collectively have a strategy) to ensure a sustainable competitive industry? We’ve got a market, leading players, support schemes for research. Is it enough? Or is an ingredient still missing from the formula that guarantees success? Usually countries are not so concerned with the origin of the components used in its territory. The defence sector has always been more cautious given the fact that you can’t build trust into a microchip after it has been built, and more recently the communication market has also been under greater scrutiny. This is a reflection of the importance of the sector, and to what extent reliance on European technology should be a priority for Europe. But this is a separate, highly controversial discussion and
or on the cost? Or most likely both? And where is the money to be made? Is there a concerted effort by the European industry to push for European standards to be globally accepted? GSM and MP3 are European standards that have proven to be of benefit to the continent, can this be replicated once again? The European Commission in Brussels has now become more open with regards to an industrial policy. Once a taboo topic, the EC is taking in its own hands topics such as industrialization of key enabling technologies such as microelectronics and photonics. More often we hear in Brussels that science for the sake of science is no longer a luxury Europe can afford at a time when spending is limited and budgets are cut. Unemployment is of major concern and a top priority for Europe, this means that we also need companies with manufacturing of products and components or providers of services. Europe has fantastic companies in the optical communications market. VI Systems is a fabless developer and producer of optical engines for data transmission at ultrahigh bit rates, offering small size and high sensitivity optical modules up to 50 Gbps enabling low cost data links. u 2 t Photonics is the leading supplier of ultra high speed optical components for 40G and 100G applications in modern long-distance optical telecommunication networks. One should not let Europe which gained previously strategic positions in the field of optical communication lose the industrial potential inthemostcriticalmoment, when broad deployment of optics is expected with coming 4G and 5G technologies, fundamentally relying on optical access networks to cope with the shrinking wireless transmission distances. “Consumer interfaces reached previously unthinkable data transmission speeds of 20 Gbps per channel
rather the discussion should focus on one of Europe’s key priorities: How to ensure that companies in Europe remain competitive? We have seen many industries where Europe was in the lead and had all the ingredients to remain at the forefront of the race, yet the manufacturing of industries such as semiconductor and more recently and violently the photovoltaic market, have relocated manufacturing. Sectors such as photovoltaic where Europe was in the lead for the technology, most of the equipment to manufacture photovoltaic was coming from Europe, and Europe (Germany) was the largest market for this renewable energy in the entire world. Still, it took less than two years to see the nationality of the leading manufacturers transform into Chinese flags. We may argue the causes, strong government support for one, but the fact remains that the negative impact on the European photovoltaic manufacturing value chain has been harsh. So if it happened to the neighbours, can it happen to us as well? What is needed for the European optical communication to remain competitive? Are the companies in Europe working together towards a sustainable industry? Is the competition on the technology
By Carlos Lee
We have seen many industries
where Europe was in the lead and had all of the ingredients to remain at the forefront of the race, yet the manufacturing of industries such as semiconductors and more recently the photovoltaic market
have relocated manufacturing.
Carlos Lee visits Intune Networks at its HQ in Dublin, here tests are done to prepare the world’s largest distributed data centre architecture at 128Tbps.
22 | Optical Connections 2013 | www.opticalconnectionsnews.com |
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