FROM THE INDUSTRY
What’s your take on AI? How’s it going to affect your company? In terms of telecom networks, the influence will be limited. I don’t know any Google AI that is really driving out to the street cabinet and is patching fibres, for example. We will see preemptive network management solutions, that’s where AI will really have an important impact. You mean anticipate problems before they arise? Yes, but before that can happen the networks need to become cleverer. The emphasis on keeping costs down has prevented new development in this area. However, at DCT Delta we’ve been doing something similar for the last 10 years anyway. Our amplifiers and nodes have small transponders added to them, that provides additional information measurements that, in real time, makes these things getting smart. Ahead of the curve! So you’re doing a big retrofit now, but you’ll eventually then supply stuff with smart-capability already enabled? That’s right. In order to apply AI, smart sensors are required all over the network, which we have been providing for many years. Now there’s a new push into that direction, which is fine for us because it means increased sales. All the new series of products have much more intelligence and contain sensors to report back a lot of details. It’s a process – we are regularly upgrading things as we go along, such as higher frequencies for coax networks. Tell me about the manufacturing - is that all done on site in Lake Constance? 90-95% of the products are produced here. We have a few things like SFP modules etc which are designed according to our specification and produced in South Korea and Taiwan.
The new Gigabit Interchange Act from the EU will probably help to improve things in Germany and will force developers to incorporate fibre into all new builds or major renovations. Most people would do it as a matter of course, but previously there was no legal obligation to; now it will be law. Ulrich, What is ANGA COM looking like this year for DCT Delta? What we typically do is to fit into the niches that really fulfill the actual need; we develop products that help the carriers optimise and upgrade their current infrastructure. We make sure that the customer gets fibre-like speed to the consumer to create cash flow today, not in five years when they eventually get fibre. So we will be demonstrating some improvements of our products and new developments which will help our customers to save money and enhance their networks. Hence your range of remote PHY technologies satisfy existing customer needs now. We are proud of ourselves in offering optimised solutions that fit the budget of the client. For example, we can ensure your remote PHY virtually costs €500 per building; our customers love this lateral- thinking style approach. We focus on how to make remote PHY and XGS-PON more attractive to the heterogeneous networks. For example, here I have FTTH and there I have FTTB, but it should all be covered with the same POP. It should not only fit into huge POPs like the classical incumbents, but also into the smaller ones for the city carriers. This is what we will show at ANGA. The DCT Delta classic product line - amplifiers with optical nodes and optical head ends - is doing significantly better than last year; we are seeing a kind of revival actually. People are recognising that fibre is what they want, but it’s some time away, so they might as well optimise what they have (e.g. DOCSIS 3.1 Ultra) in order to create cash flow.
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Volume 46 No.2 MAY 2024
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