TELECOM EQUIPMENT REVENUES FALL IN FY12
The Indian telecom equipment industry’s revenues fell marginally to Rs 1,13,188 crore in 2011-12 from Rs 1,14,133 crore 2010-11, according to a Voice&Data survey.
According to the CyberMedia group’s journal Voice&Data, nearly half of the telecom equipment revenue came from carrier equipment manufacturers, which saw a dip of 5.06 per cent to touch Rs 55,333 crore during the year. In FY10-11, the segment had registered Rs 58,285 crore revenue.
Within the carrier equipment business, the biggest losers are segments like transmission, telecom turnkey and wireless infrastructure.
Transmission segment dropped 21.88 per cent to report revenues of Rs 3,825 crore, from Rs 4,896 crore a year back. The telecom turnkey segment revenue reached Rs 1,862 crore from Rs 5,362 in FY2010-11 showing a dip of 65.27 per cent. The wireless infrastructure segment dipped 40.51 per cent to record revenue of Rs 10,930 crore from Rs 18,374 crore last year.
“The sharp fall in the carrier equipment segment can be attributed to policy uncertainty and low spending by operators, which prohibited many telecom operators in releasing large scale network expansion orders.”
The user device segment that includes mobile handsets, fixed phones, datacards and tablets contributed more than one-third to the total telecom equipment industry, at Rs 34,672 crore, recording a flat growth of 0.33 per cent from Rs 34,557 crore last year.
Mobile handset maker Nokia had the highest revenue during the year followed by Samsung. They were followed by telecom equipment manufacturers like Cisco, Huawei, NSN, Ericsson, and Alcatel-Lucent.
Samsung registered maximum growth of 57.34 per cent to capture the second position with revenues of Rs 9,000 crore, riding high on its smartphone and tablet portfolio.
The survey revealed that enterprise equipment grew at 8.89 per cent to report revenues of Rs 23,183 crore for the same period, up from Rs 21,291 crore in FY10-11.
Enterprise cost saving equipment segments like audio-video conferencing and voice solutions showed significant growth. 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.
“It is clear that operators have slowed down investments in building, expanding and upgrading their networks. This could have a serious impact on country’s teledensity and broadband target,” opines Ibrahim Ahmad, group editor, Voice&Data.
The17th annual survey, V&D 100, covered over 500 telecom companies in India spanning carrier equipment, enterprise communication equipment, and user device manufacturers.
