Communication Products Worth Rs 75,000 Crore Sold Last Year

India's telecom equipment sector grew by 43.5 percent in 2006-07 posting
revenue of Rs 77,170 crore, according to a research report and analysis by
Voice&Data, India's leading communications magazine from the CyberMedia group.

The 12th Indian Telecom Equipment Business Report released by Voice&Data
covers three main segments-enterprise equipment, carrier equipment and end-user
handsets. The report named 'V&D100' is based on a survey of over 500 telecom
companies operating in India.

The report revealed that the carrier equipment contributed 55 percent to the
Rs 77,170 crore telecom equipment sector, while the share of phone equipment
stood at 30 percent and enterprise equipment at 14 percent.

PRASANTO K ROY: “Deplo- yment of the emerging 3G and WiMax technology platforms,and  strong demand for innovative tele- com services from enterprises, are contributing to the growth this year”

In 2006-07, Nokia retained the top position among the telecom equipment
companies while Ericsson jumped to the second position from the fifth position
in 2005-06.

Commenting on the survey Prasanto K Roy, Chief Editor, CyberMedia group,
publishers of Voice&Data said, “The Indian telecom equipment market continues to
be on a roll, with a robust 43.5 percent growth in 2006-07. Driving this growth
are the massive expansion initiatives announced by service providers, and
exploding consumer demand for mobile connections on the back of crashing tariffs
and handset prices. Going forward, deployment of the emerging 3G and WiMax
technology platforms, and strong demand for innovative telecom services from
enterprises, are contributing to the growth this year,” Roy added.

Handsets sales burgeon

During 2006-07 the handset segment, including mobile and fixed line,
reported the highest growth at 45 percent followed by carrier equipment and
enterprise equipment at 44 percent and 38 percent, respectively.

The survey reveals that revenue in the handset's segment stood at Rs 23,452
crore in 2006-07 with most of the growth coming from the mobile handsets.

Carrier equipment clocked revenues of Rs 42,763 crore in 2006-07, a 44
percent growth fuelled by low broadband penetration, untapped mobile

markets and adoption of innovative technologies.

Within carrier equipment, revenues of telecom cables decreased by 34 percent
to Rs 961 crore in 2006-07, as telecom carriers continued to focus on

wireless business. Telecom software and wireless infrastructure grew fastest in
this segment at 55 percent and 46 percent, respectively.

The enterprise equipment segment grew at 38 percent to Rs 10,955 crore,
fuelled by the adoption of IT in the retail sector, increased government
investment in technology applications, and the service industry providing more
value-added services. In this segment switches remained the

top product category by revenues, followed by routers and voice solutions.

Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola top three

Nokia retained its top position with nearly 54 percent share of the mobile
handset market and over 26 percent of the wireless infrastructure market, with
revenues of Rs 15,891 crore. Ericsson bagged the second position with a 95
percent increase in revenue to Rs 5,004 crore. Alcatel-Lucent at number fie and
ZTE at number 10 were the new entrants in the Top 10.

LG Electronics, which stood at second position in 2005-06, slid to number
seven as its revenue fell six percent to Rs 3,140 crore in 2006-07.

In the Rs 17,871 crore telecom software category, TCS led with 18 percent
share, followed by Tech Mahindra at over 16 percent and Infosys at 15 percent.

The leader in the Rs 16,677 crore wireless infrastructure category was
Ericsson with 28 percent share closely followed by Nokia with 26 percent and
Alcatel Lucent with 18 percent share.

The survey found that Cisco had nearly three-fourth of the Rs 1,980 crore
switches market, followed by D-Link and Nortel. The leader in the Rs 1,437 crore
router market was also Cisco, with over 80 percent share, and with Juniper a
distant second at 10 percent.