Nokia, Samsung, Cisco: top 3 telecom equipment providers

The Indian telecom equipment industry posted marginally lower revenues of Rs113,188 crore in 2011-12 compared to Rs1,14,133 crore in FY2010-11, according to the 2012 annual survey of the Indian Telecom industry by CyberMedia group's flagship journal for the telecom industry, Voice&Data.

The17th annual survey, Voice&Data 100, covered over 500 telecom companies in India spanning carrier equipment, enterprise communication equipment, and user device manufacturers.

According to the survey, nearly half of the telecom equipment revenue came from carrier equipment manufacturers, which saw a dip of 5.06 per cent to touch Rs55,333 crore during the year. In the previous year, FY10-11, the segment had registered Rs58,285 crore revenue.

Enterprise equipment grew at 8.89 per cent to report revenues of Rs23,183 crore in the year, up from Rs21,291 crore in FY10-11.

The user device segment that includes mobile handsets, fixed phones, data cards and tablet computers, contributed more than one-third to the total telecom equipment industry, at Rs34,672 crore, recording a flat growth of 0.33 per cent from Rs34,557 crore a year ago.

''The survey bears out market apprehensions that the operators have slowed down investments in building, expanding and upgrading their networks. This could have a serious impact on Indian's tele-density and broadband targets,'' says Ibrahim Ahmad, Group Editor, Voice&Data.
 
The Top 10 Club
Finnish mobile handset maker Nokia had the highest revenue during the year followed by Korean electronics major Samsung, followed by telecom equipment manufacturers like Cisco, Huawei, Nokia Siemens Networks, Ericsson, and Alcatel-Lucent.

The Top10 also saw the inclusion of software companies like TCS, Wipro and Tech Mahindra.



The survey attributes the sharp decline in the carrier equipment revenues to policy uncertainty, which restrained many telecom operators from releasing large scale network expansion orders.

The Top 10 also saw Samsung registering highest growth of 57.34 per cent to capture the second position with revenues of Rs9,000 crore, riding high on its smartphone and tablet portfolio.

Within the carrier equipment business, segments like transmission, telecom turnkey and wireless infrastructure were the biggest losers. The transmission segment dropped 21.88 per cent to report revenues of Rs3,825 crore from Rs4,896 crore last year.

The telecom turnkey segment revenue dropped 65.27 per cent from Rs5,362 crore to Rs1,862 crore. The wireless infrastructure segment dipped 40.51 per cent to record revenue of Rs10,930 crore from Rs18,374 crore a year ago.

The enterprise equipment business grew by 8.89 per cent to reach Rs23,183 crore in FY11-12 from Rs 21,291 crore in FY10-11.

Enterprise cost saving equipment segments like audio-video conferencing and voice solutions showed significant growth of 16 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.

The modem and router industry saw a negative growth as enterprises demanded futuristic and multi-tasking devices like single device working as modem, router and switch.

''Higher spend on enterprise and consumer communications in the last fiscal re-iterates increasing importance of user communications. Operators will have to enhance their services to match user expectations,'' added Ahmad.