GITEX 2012 INTERVIEWS ITU TELECOM World 2012 - Teletimes

Teletimes InterviewsBy: Gulraiz KhalidWe are bringing Flexibility,Speed Quality and reliabilityMichel RivaChief Executive Officer, R&MTeletimes - Could you give abrief about your role in thecabling industry.Michel Riva - We have been operatingin the Middle East for thepast 14 years and our regionalhub is here in Dubai. And weare today number one in FTTHdeployments in UAE, Saudi andOman we have good references.We are among the top 3 playersin the private side.TT - How big is this market asof now?MR - It is full of opportunities.This is what you can see here atGitex. Where we are extremelystrong is that we don’t targetonly one vertical market assuch. So we are really addressingmany vertical markets mostof them asking for quality andadded value. So we have twostrong legs- one is copperand the other is fiber. On thefiber side we are able to addressvertical markets such ascity developments by telecomoperators or utilities. On thecopper side we are able to addresshealthcare, hospitality,finance, education and basicallywherever people want to have astrong network.TT - Is the move towards thecloud affecting the business ofthe cabling industry?MR - In a certain way, it is notbecause if you look at thecloud, it is data being store indatacenters. And datacentersfor us is a key component of thedatacenter. Both fiber and copperare the two strong legs.And to highlight why cablingis so important, consider theexample. If you want to have anice car and you want to enjoythe speed, youneed to havea niceroad. To change the road is verydifficult but to change a car isvery easy. When you want tostart building infrastructurewhen it comes to IT, the cars arethe are like the data. And nowyou have a data explosion. Youneed more and more data. Andyou need a good cabling solutionto handle all this. And thisinvestment in cablingis going to runfor 20 to 25 years so it is reallyimportant to invest right fromthe beginning in good qualityinfrastructure.TT - Everyone seems to be talkingabout green data centers.The 47-year-oldSwiss has held seniorpositions at a numberof companiesin Switzerland andabroad, including atHoffmann-La Rocheand DuPont. Overthe past eight years,Michel Riva has giventhe Bonding SystemsDivision at theForbo company inBaar a new strategicdirection and hasstimulated highlyprofitable growth.He supervised 1400employees thereand achieved a salesfigure of CHF 600million.November 2012www.teletimesinternational.com27