Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 10 (IANS) Despite the boom in new additions to India’s telecom subscriber network last fiscal, the growth of the equipment market declined a tad to 18.6 percent, against 20 percent in the previous year, a new survey said Thursday.
According to a survey released by leading ICT magazine Voice&Data, the overall telecom equipment revenue in India stood at Rs.136,833 crore ($28.8 billion) during the fiscal, as against Rs.115,382 crore a year before. (One US dollar approximately equals Rs.45)

The survey was based on the revenue of telecom vendors in the enterprise equipment, carrier equipment and phone segments, the magazine said.

“The telecom equipment segment growth is impressive in the backdrop of recession-hit economy at large, and the fact that the 3G rollout did not happen last year,” said Ibrahim Ahmad, group editor, Voice&Data.

This segment will continue to register robust growth in the wake of roll-out of 3G and broadband wireless services, he added.

Finnish mobile phone and equipment maker Nokia maintained its top ranking with revenues of Rs.14,100 crore despite a decline in revenues as compared to last year, followed by the China’s Huawei.

Sweden’s Ericsson, which had been in a comfortable second position for the last two years, fell to the fourth place, the survey noted.

The state-run ITI and Tech Mahindra were the new entrants in the V&D Top10 list of telecom equipment vendors in FY 2009-10. ITI entered the top 10 ranking with a 172 percent increase in revenues, touching Rs.4,732 crore.

The carrier equipment industry showed a steady 21 percent growth, clocking Rs.89,476 crore (nearly $19 billion), driven by high growth of wireless infrastructure, WiMax, transmission and broadband infrastructure.

According to the survey, even though growth slowed compared to 2008-09, due to lower investments in the wireless infrastructure, primarily in cellular service equipment, it was still very healthy.

Service providers slowed down their 2G expansion plans, in the absence of clarity on the 3G auctions, which finally happened in the current fiscal. Despite the cautious approach by 2G operators, wireless infrastructure grew 26 percent to touch Rs.43,200 crore.

The enterprise equipment segment grew by 31 percent to touch Rs.20,007 crore. The switch and router segments showed 92 percent and 65 percent growth, respectively.