Thinking about starting your own business in the Optical Network market ? You right : there is plenty of money to make out there. Upcoming Fiber To The Home networks massive deployments are just the first milestone of a new golden era - hey, there are cycles in this industry; think about long-haul, and you will understand; if not, please come back here in a couple of weeks ;-).
So let's have a look at a mandatory task : fiber characterization. Qualify the fibers for 10 or 40G systems, for instance. Or, in this ongoing consolidation period where telcos merge with telcos, get info on ' unknown ' fibers. Here is my * Fiber Characterization Services * business plan in brief, as a free give-away for you fellow entrepreneurs. Enjoy !
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When starting from scratch, the best way to enter the FCS market segment is to go step by step through the following offers :
- step one : Fiber Plant Documentation. Typically, the FPD service consists of processing the Acceptance test data gathered by the installer/contractor/telco in the field, for the FPD contractor to put together the Test Report and send it back to his customer. The next level is to provide also data analysis, which requires technical expertise and good knowledge of the fiber plant.
Then comes the top level, when the customer wants its fiber plant to be documented but doesn't have any existing database. The FPD "premium service" will therefore include both "Visual" inspection of the cable plant and "Testing" of the fibers. The tests are the basic ones : OTDR, Loss test, Return Loss test, plus optical connectors inspection.
- step two : Fiber Plant Maintenance. Leverage on the perfect understanding and knowledge of the customer 's optical network infrastructure acquired with the FPD as described above. FPM requires know-how and expertise, for the contractor to manage high-standard SLAs with his customer(s).
- step three : Fiber Characterization Services. Those are the *hot stuff* in today 's optical networking marketplace. Are meant for WDM high-speed networks, in the Long-Haul and the Metro arenas. Consist of the "basic tests" as shortly described above : OTDR, OLT, ORL, plus the "high-end" measurements : CD chromatic dispersion, PMD polarization mode dispersion, and upon request active wavelength measurement (i.e. testing live WDM transmission) - this last for maintenance purpose. All tests are *easy* to perform in the field, but require high-level expertise with the Dispersions analysis.
In the "Fiber Characterization Services" business plan, the FCS by itself represents "only" 20% of the market potential for Fiber Testing : the first two levels FPD (Documentation) and FPM (Maintenance) are 80% of it. They target 100% of the optical networks carriers/owners/providers : Telecoms, but also LAN, Utilities, etc., whilst the FCS per say targets "only" the WDM networks.
FPD and FPM are mainstream cash-cows, FCS is the "image & high-profit" generator.
How to get started : Either go right upfront as a standalone contractor for the telcos and associates, or partner with an established FCS provider. Follow the step-by-step method : start with simple Fiber Plant Documentation services, then after acquisition of strong know-how extend the portfolio towards outsourced maintenance, finally going into full-blown Fiber Characterization services when a reputation of excellence is established.
