Ekinops is a provider of telecommunications solutions for telecommunications operators and service providers. The company relies on more than 450 employees, half of whom are R&D engineers. The company stands out from its main competitors (Cisco, Huawei, Juniper, Ciena, Adva) thanks to its programmable and scalable solutions that can roll out rapidly new optical transport and corporate services, especially through network virtualisation. Ekinops is banking on the strong demand to come, especially for the roll out of 5G and OTN technology, and aims to triple its sales of optical transport products within five years.
Acquisitions to compete with the major players
With the acquisition of OneAccess in 2017, Ekinops quadrupled in size to exceed €84M turnover in 2018. As a result, the company has managed to change its horizons and achieve a critical global size that makes it easier to win over large operators. Its customers were previously more medium-sized operators, with the exception of Orange in France and a major operator in the United States, while OneAccess solutions already equipped 130 telecoms operators, including 30 of the world’s Top 100. Ekinops was also able to supplement its offer through this operation. With its Ekinops360 platform, the Breton company meets the needs of metropolitan, regional and long-distance networks for layer 1 of optical networks, which can transport of data. The OneAccess solutions, with their physical and virtualised roll out choices, for layers 2 and 3 – link/switching data and network/data routing – have thus rounded out the group’s global offer.
In 2019, Ekinops also acquired the OTN-Switch (Optical Transport Network) platform developed by Padtec, a Brazilian-based manufacturer of optical network equipment. As part of this operation, in addition to owning the OTN technology, Ekinops also acquired an R&D team of 25 engineers based in Campinas, near Sao Paulo. OTN technology can switch data traffic to fibre optics and significantly contribute to the optimisation of bandwidth on networks. This technology allows Ekinops to make a major technological and commercial leap in order to position itself with the very large telecom operators, especially for their 5G networks. With this acquisition, Ekinops plans to triple its sales of optical transport products within 5 years.
Ekinops therefore provides both optical transport equipment, corporate routers and the software part for virtualised functions and SD-WAN applications. A comprehensive, agile offer that is its strength and which will carry more and more weight in its market. Today Ekinops supplies 16 of the world’s 30 largest operators and is one of the rare players in the world to handle network layers 1, 2 and 3.
Ekinops is banking on business synergies to penetrate new segments and accelerate its growth in markets where Internet traffic is rising and needs are increasing. With a strong historical presence in Europe, its development target is now the United States, where the company already generates 40% of its business. The company also has a strong presence in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia.
