FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Gary Grimes
Phone: 818-780-9701 x123
e-mail: ggrimes@ozc.vmdevsite.com
Optical Zonu, Inc. travels to South America
Patented Micro-OTDR SFPs Huge Success
Los Angeles – October 2018 – Optical Zonu, Corp (OZC) recently returned from an 8-day visit to South America. Visiting existing customers and building new relationships.
Below is a Q&A with Mike Hartmann VP of Sales and Marketing with Optical Zonu Corporation.
Q: What was the purpose of your trip to South America?
A: Two of our larger “Early Adopters” of our Micro-OTDR SFPs are based in South America. We felt that it was time to personally meet, and thank them, and try to better understand their operations so that we can better support their needs. We also used our time there as an opportunity to visit other prospective customers in the region.
Q: What countries did you visit?
A: First Brazil, then Argentina.
Q: Tell me more about those “Early Adopter” Customers in South America?
A: In Brazil, Padtec SA, is the leading domestic Networking Equipment manufacturer. They have been using our Dual-Fiber Micro-OTDR SFP models in the optical supervisory channel (OSC) of their high throughput transmission equipment. This allows them to add optical fiber fault monitoring to these products. This is an important application for us. Thanks to the Padtec SA requirements, we introduced the Dual-Fiber Micro-OTDR SFP models in an accelerated timeframe, which has proven beneficial to many of our customers.
After a weekend in Rio de Janeiro, we headed off to visit the other “Early Adopter” of the Micro-OTDR SFPs, FiberCorp SA (a subsidiary of Telecom Argentina, SA, the largest communications service provider – CSP in South America) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Q: Which prospective Customers were you able to visit?
A: Meir Bartur, our Company’s President and Co-Founder and I split up for part of the time in Brazil. Meir first visited Furukawa Industrial SA, in Curitiba, another global Networking Equipment manufacturer, returning the favor for a recent visit by Furukawa to the OZC Factory in Van Nuys, CA. I ventured by car to Timbo to visit a regional internet service provider (ISP) who had our Dual-Fiber Micro-OTDR SFP models deployed in Padtec equipment throughout their network. After Curitiba, our next stop was Campinas, to visit Padtec SA.
Q: Were there any surprises during these visits?
A: After our visit to Padtec, Meir headed back to Rio de Janeiro, while I stayed over to try to arrange to visit a company named CPqD. Fortunately, I was able to arrange this and paid a call there on Friday afternoon. CPqD (translated means “R&D Center”) traces its history back to the 1960s, when it was established as a military communications R&D Center. Since the mid-1980s, CPqD has been a commercial company and now has a division specializing in optical fiber cable plant monitoring. It was this group with whom I met and was pleasantly surprised when great interest was shown in the Micro-OTDR SFP products.
Q: What did you do at FiberCorp SA?
A: FiberCorp SA is directly serviced by our OEM Customer a network equipment manufacturer and “channel partner”, Net2Edge Ltd., a company owned by the parent company of another one of our OEM Customers, Transition Networks Inc. We joined the Net2Edge CTO in training sessions for Technicians and Engineers in the morning, and later Managers in the afternoon. That evening we were also able to accompany FiberCorp SA Engineers on a “maintenance window” repair mission to one of the FiberCorp Hubs (remote networking equipment locations) in a Buenos Aires suburb.
Q8: Did you have any time for fun or sightseeing?
A8: Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro was awesome! The food everywhere was fabulous. Shopping for leather in Buenos Aires was divine. Brazil and Argentina are two huge countries, of which I knew very little. I hope to change this very soon. The people we met were all friendly and quite sophisticated. The potential for OZC in these regions of South America is HUGE….
Q: What is next for OZC in South America?
A: Through our channel partners, and directly, we need to continue to pay attention to the market needs there. We are cognizant of the demand, and patient enough to see things through, so the opportunities are boundless.