HFCL Spotlights the Ability to Pivot Between Telecom & Data Centre-Grade Fibre-Count Products

After serving decades of applications in the conventional telecom industry, the optical fibre cable finds itself in a transitory role, wherein a manufacturer’s ability to pivot between telecom-grade and data-centre-grade high-fibre-count products, establishes their presence in the market. For HFCL, that means building across both ends of the market — from FTTH and 5G backhaul to ultra-high-fibre-count data-centre connectivity. In an exclusive interview with Wire & Cable India, Mr. Harsh Pagay, Executive President-OFC, HFCL Limited, emphasises how this shift is reflected in HFCL’s OptiQ AI™ portfolio and the INR 215 crore facility approved in July 2026 for advanced data-centre connectivity products. At the same time, HFCL has doubled its optical fibre capacity from 14 million to 28 million fibre-km, with 33.9 million fibre-km targeted by December 2026, while its planned INR 580 crore greenfield preform facility strengthens upstream integration. With 3,456-fibre and 6,912-fibre micro-duct IBR cables already developed and higher-density designs on the roadmap, the company’s strategy is increasingly centred on combining scale, integration and manufacturing agility to follow where fibre demand moves next.

Wire & Cable India: India’s fibre deployment is expanding across FTTH, 5G backhaul, data centres, BharatNet, enterprise networks and other segments. Which application segments are currently shaping product development and manufacturing priorities the most, and how do their technical requirements differ?

Harsh Pagay: Right now, three segments are shaping product development more than any other: FTTH, data centres, and 5G backhaul and each pulls the technology roadmap in a different direction. FTTH demands bend-insensitive G.657.A2 fibre and drop cables that can be routed around tight corners in homes and multi-dwelling units, along with mass, pre-terminated connectivity to keep last-mile deployment fast and low-cost.

5G backhaul and small-cell densification need ruggedised aerial (ADSS) and duct cables in micro/mini form factors that can be deployed quickly along existing infrastructure. Data centres especially the AI-driven hyperscale build-out are the fastest-moving segment today: demand for data-centre fibre grew roughly 76% year-on-year recently and is projected to keep climbing sharply as a share of total global fibre demand, because AI racks can require over 30 times more fibre per rack than a traditional CPU-based design. That’s pulling us toward ultra-high-fibre-count, pre-terminated MPO/MTP trunk cables with far tighter loss and density specifications than legacy telecom cable. As compute clusters scale and network interfaces move from 800G towards 1.6T, the focus is increasingly on fibre density, compactness, bandwidth, and deployment speed. This is creating demand for high-fibre-count cables, Intermittently Bonded Ribbon (IBR), micro duct-compatible designs, and high-density connectivity solutions. This is the inspiration behind our OptiQ AI™ portfolio, and the INR 215 crore facility approved in July 2026 for advanced data centre connectivity products.

Defence and tactical communications are also emerging as an important segment, with a very different performance profile. Defence applications place greater emphasis on survivability, mechanical robustness and environmental endurance, which is why we have invested in Fibre-in-Metal-Tube manufacturing capability.Today, the industry is moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach to optical connectivity. Cable designs are increasingly being tailored to the application, the environment in which they will be deployed, and the need to deliver reliable performance at the right cost over the life cycle.

Moreover, industry is aggressively working towards development of new fibre types (HCF & MCF) for next generation technologies and the entire eco-system associated with it including optical fibre cables. BharatNet and enterprise networks remain important, steady-volume segments, but their technical requirements durability, cost-efficiency, ease of rural deployment are more mature and less of a forcing function on where we invest R&D today.

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WCI: Over the past three to five years, what manufacturing capabilities or process improvements have become commercially essential for OFC producers that were previously considered optional? Which market, technological or customer requirements have made these capabilities increasingly critical?

HP: The clearest shift is that in-house preform and optical fibre manufacturing what used to be considered a nice-to-have layer of backward integration has become commercially essential. Preform is 60–70% of the cost of a fibre, and with global glass/preform supply tightening and prices rising sharply over the past couple of years, manufacturers without that capability are simply price-takers with unpredictable lead times. Alongside that, automated high-speed draw towers with real-time diameter and tension control, ribbonisation for mass-fusion splicing, and NABL-accredited in-house testing across optical, mechanical and environmental parameters have all moved from differentiators to baseline requirements.

The driver in each case is the same: customers, particularly large telecom operators and hyperscalers now run detailed supplier audits before awarding volume contracts, and they expect demonstrable process control and traceability at every stage, not just a finished product that passes acceptance testing. At HFCL, we have increased our optical fibre capacity from 14 million fibre-km to 28 million fibre-km, with 33.9 million fibre-km targeted by December 2026. Our Board has also approved INR 580 crore for a 300–310 tonne-per-annum greenfield preform facility.

High-density manufacturing has similarly moved from a niche capability to an important requirement. Producing low-diameter fibre and IBR at scale demands much tighter control over coating, tension, ribbon geometry, fibre handling and cabling processes.

Testing and qualification speed have also become commercially essential, because customers want qualification timelines compressed rather than queued behind third-party laboratories. That’s why environmental and mechanical testing capability, covering standards such as the IEC 60794 series, Telcordia GR-20-CORE and ICEA S-87-640, is now a procurement prerequisite. Our laboratories in Goa, Chennai and Hyderabad are NABL-accredited and recognised under the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement. We also have in-house jetting and blowing capability, so we can validate blowing distance, friction behaviour and duct compatibility during development rather than discovering limitations at a customer site.

Automation and AI-enabled process control are another area of evolution. These technologies can help identify process deviations, predict quality excursions, optimise machine parameters and reduce downtime.

Finally, sustainability is increasingly a manufacturing parameter, with customers evaluating energy efficiency, water recycling, waste reduction and material efficiency alongside product specifications. The shift is therefore from simply adding capacity to building controlled, automated and resource-efficient manufacturing systems.

WCI: Network operators today expect higher reliability, faster deployment and longer service life. Which product attributes, quality parameters or qualification requirements have become significantly more demanding? How have manufacturers responded?

HP: Attenuation and bend-loss performance have tightened considerably the industry has moved decisively toward G.657.A1/A2 fibre even in applications that would have used standard single-mode a few years ago, because tighter routing in buildings, data centres and dense urban deployments simply doesn’t tolerate the old bend-loss budgets.

Mechanical robustness expectations have also risen cables now need to survive higher crush, impact and tensile loads for underground and high-density data-centre deployments, and fire-safety ratings (LSZH, OFNP/OFNR/Plenum grades) are now a baseline requirement rather than a premium option for indoor and data-centre cable. Expected service life has extended too, with operators now designing for 25–30 years rather than the traditional 15–20. Manufacturers have responded by expanding in-house qualification labs, tightening incoming raw-material and in-process controls, and investing in rollable-ribbon and pre-terminated connectivity designs that cut field installation time because speed of deployment has become as commercially important as the cable’s own specifications. Installation performance is also now part of product qualification. Customers evaluate factors such as blowing distance, friction, pull tension, splice preparation, and mass-fusion splice yield because these directly influence how much network infrastructure a crew can deploy in each period.

Qualification requirements have also expanded to include fire performance, RoHS and REACH compliance, environmental endurance, mechanical robustness, and design-life requirements. Manufacturers therefore need much tighter process control, supported by automation, continuous in-line measurement and in-house qualification capabilities. In other words, the industry is moving from testing whether a cable works to understanding how predictably it can be deployed, spliced, maintained, and restored in the field.

WCI: From preforms and optical fibre to cable manufacturing and testing, where has the Indian industry made the most significant progress towards technological self-reliance? Which critical gaps remain?

HP: India has made significant progress in cable manufacturing and fibre drawing, and the capability available today is far broader than it was several years ago. Indian manufacturers now produce conventional fibre products as well as micro duct, FTTH, high-count, and ribbon-based designs for both domestic and export markets. PLI and DLI schemes have also helped accelerate design and manufacturing activity in India.

At HFCL, we have developed 3,456-fibre micro duct IBR cable 6,912-fibre variants, with even higher-density designs of around 13,000 fibres already on our roadmap. These products require precise fibre handling, ribbonisation, and dimensional control.

India has made real, visible progress on fibre drawing and cable manufacturing scale. The country is now among the largest producers globally, capacity has expanded significantly across telecom and data-centre-grade products, and patent filings by domestic manufacturers have grown meaningfully over the last few years. Backward integration into preform manufacturing is also now underway across the industry, which is an important step toward reducing import dependence on the single largest cost component.

That said, the remaining gaps are real: the core glass/preform raw material is still substantially import-dependent industry-wide, specialty fibres hollow-core, multi-core, polarization-maintaining fibre for defence, aerospace and emerging quantum-communication applications are still nascent domestically, and precision fibre-drawing and testing equipment is still largely imported. Closing those gaps, particularly on preform capacity and specialty fibre R&D, is where the next phase of self-reliance needs to be concentrated.

Based on our own supply chain experience, import dependency is most acute in high-purity precursor chemistry, UV-curable coatings, specialised strength members, and capital equipment such as high-precision draw towers, deposition systems, ribbon and cabling lines, and optical metrology equipment, consistent with the global equipment market, where a small number of specialist manufacturers account for most supply. Building depth across materials, equipment and next-generation fibre technology, not just cable production, is what the next phase of India’s OFC self-reliance requires.

WCI: Recent investments across the industry suggest a growing emphasis on automation, quality assurance and manufacturing scale. In your view, which investments have now become standard expectations or industry necessities, and which continue to provide a tangible competitive advantage?

HP: Automated quality assurance, ISO/TL 9000 process certification, and digitally traceable manufacturing (MES/ERP-integrated) have become standard expectations. No serious telecom operator or hyperscaler will qualify a supplier without them today, so they no longer differentiate one manufacturer from another. Scale is increasingly becoming a prerequisite, rather than a differentiator. What separates manufacturers is how effectively that scale is combined with quality, engineering capability, flexibility and execution.

Automated production, inline monitoring, end-to-end optical testing, spool-level traceability, thin-coating fibre handling, high-count IBR capability, and dedicated qualification laboratories are becoming fundamental requirements. Strong quality and environmental management systems are similarly moving into the category of baseline expectations.

Competitive advantage comes from operating at the more demanding end of the market. Capabilities such as 3,456F, 6,912F, and emerging ~13,000F micro duct IBR cables, thin-coating draw capability, faster qualification cycles, and proprietary application-specific designs require significant engineering depth and process maturity. Geographic diversification also matters. Designing products to meet varying regional standards, compliance requirements, and local-content rules helps manufacturers stay competitive across geographies, rather than offering a single design everywhere.

But technology alone is not enough. Application engineering is becoming a major differentiator. The ability to take a customer field issue and develop and qualify a solution in weeks rather than quarters can create significant customer value.

Ultimately, the competitive advantage is not automation or capacity in isolation. It is the combination of scale, quality, innovation, and customer-centricity.

What continues to provide a genuine, tangible edge is backward integration into preform and raw fibre, R&D depth that lets a manufacturer anticipate next-generation fibre types ahead of demand rather than reacting to it, and the speed at which a manufacturer can scale capacity in step with a demand cycle the current AI-driven data-centre fibre demand surge is a good example of how being ready ahead of the curve, rather than after it, is what actually separates winners. Vertical integration across the full value chain, from optical fibre through to finished connectivity solutions, is increasingly the structural advantage that’s hardest for competitors to replicate quickly.

WCI: The economics of OFC manufacturing are evolving with increasing investments in capacity, technology and quality. In your view, which factors now have the greatest influence on the commercial viability and long-term competitiveness of OFC manufacturing?

HP: Competitiveness in this industry has moved well beyond simply adding capacity and competing on price. A few structural factors now determine who wins over the long term.

The first is control over the upstream supply chain. Companies with greater visibility into fibre supply, rather than dependence on external sourcing, are better positioned on cost, planning, and reliability. Closely tied to this is utilisation: because this is a capital-intensive business, how efficiently a company runs its manufacturing base matters as much as how large that base is.

The second is product mix. Commodity-grade fibre offers limited value creation; the real opportunity lies in higher-engineering products, high-count cable, data centre connectivity, and application-specific designs, where technical capability, not price alone, determines competitiveness.

The third is market access. Trade measures, anti-dumping duties, and local-content requirements are increasingly shaping where companies can compete effectively, making geographic strategy a commercial consideration in its own right.

Further, execution discipline, qualification speed, capital deployment, and manufacturing yield determine how efficiently a company converts capacity into returns.The strategic question, therefore, is not how much capacity a company can add, but what combination of capacity, product mix, integration and market positioning will remain competitive across the cycle.

Raw-material self-sufficiency is also one of the biggest lever, simply because preform/glass cost dominates the cost structure of a fibre a manufacturer with secure, in-house preform supply has a structural cost and lead-time advantage that’s very difficult for an import-dependent competitor to match, especially during the kind of supply tightness the industry has seen recently, with global fibre prices rising sharply and lead times stretching toward a year for some specialty products. Beyond that, scale economics matter given how capital-intensive draw-tower infrastructure is, as does the ability to flex product mix quickly. A manufacturer that can pivot between telecom-grade and data-centre-grade high-fibre-count products as demand shifts will consistently out-earn one that can’t. Export competitiveness in a market that periodically swings between shortage and oversupply, consistent quality that survives increasingly rigorous customer audits, and diversified, resilient sourcing all round out the picture.

WCI: Beyond manufacturing capacity, what factors now determine a manufacturer’s ability to secure large telecom, infrastructure or data communication projects? How have procurement expectations evolved?

HP: Beyond raw manufacturing capacity, what wins large telecom, infrastructure and data-communication projects today is a combination of certified quality systems, financial strength to support multi-year supply commitments, in-house engineering capability to customise designs for project-specific requirements, and dependable logistics at scale. Procurement has clearly shifted from a lowest-cost-per-unit mindset to a total-cost-of-ownership view that weighs reliability, lead-time certainty and the ability to sustain a long-term partnership. We’re increasingly seeing large customers particularly Hyperscalers pursue multi-year framework agreements and even pre-invest in supplier capacity to secure guaranteed volumes; recent multi-billion-dollar capacity-lock agreements between Hyperscalers and global fibre manufacturers are a clear signal of where large-account procurement is heading, and manufacturers who can offer that kind of committed, long-term capacity will increasingly have an edge over those who can only compete on a per-order basis. Product qualification remains fundamental, but total cost of ownership is becoming equally important. Installation distance, duct occupancy, blowing performance, splice time, restoration, and maintenance can materially affect the economics of a network.

Compliance expectations have also expanded beyond product standards to include fire classification, chemical compliance, local-content requirements, ESG disclosure, and supplier audits. Engineering and deployment support are increasingly part of the proposition as well. Field trials, deployment support, and training can all influence project outcomes.

This broader approach is reflected in our OFC business, which recorded its highest-ever order book of INR 13,483 crore in FY26, while the group order book stood at approximately INR 26,665 crore at the end of Q1 FY27. For large infrastructure programmes, customers are ultimately buying confidence: confidence in the product, the supply chain, and the supplier’s ability to execute.

WCI: As fibre networks become denser and applications more diverse, how are cable designs evolving? In your opinion, which developments, whether in fibre count, cable construction, miniaturisation, bend performance, installation practices or other aspects, are becoming commercially important today?

HP: Fibre count is rising sharply driven overwhelmingly by data centres, where an AI-optimised rack can need over a thousand fibres compared to a few dozen for a traditional cloud rack, pushing cable designs toward several-thousand-fibre-count trunks that would have been unthinkable in telecom cable a few years ago. To fit that density into the same duct and pathway space, miniaturisation thinner coatings (down to 200 micron), reduced buffer and jacket dimensions has become commercially important, as has continued improvement in bend performance to allow tighter routing in increasingly dense environments.

On the installation side, rollable ribbon designs for mass fusion splicing and pre-terminated, plug-and-play MPO/MTP connectivity are becoming standard because they cut deployment time dramatically, which matters enormously to hyperscale customers racing to bring capacity online. Alongside all of this, durability requirements rodent, UV and moisture resistance remain important for outdoor and rural deployments like BharatNet, so manufacturers need range across both ends of this spectrum simultaneously.

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WCI: Looking beyond demand growth, what do you believe will distinguish the most competitive OFC manufacturers over the next few years? Please draw upon broader industry developments and the capabilities that will matter most, such as manufacturing excellence, technology, quality systems, engineering expertise and supply-chain resilience.

HP: Looking ahead, I’d point to five things that will separate the most competitive OFC manufacturers: backward integration into preform and raw fibre, to control cost and supply security rather than being exposed to global price and lead-time swings; R&D depth that anticipates next-generation fibre types hollow-core, multi-core, specialty PM fibre ahead of demand rather than after it; manufacturing agility to shift product mix quickly between telecom-grade and data-centre-grade high-density products as demand cycles change, which recent history shows can happen very fast; quality systems and certifications robust enough to pass the increasingly rigorous audits that hyperscalers and large operators now run; and engineering expertise to deliver customised, application-specific solutions rather than commodity products.

The companies that combine manufacturing scale with genuine technology leadership and true end-to-end integration, from fibre to finished connectivity solutions, will be the ones that pull ahead and everything else increasingly becomes table stakes.