The Hindu Business Line : Telecom gear market slides 34 pc

THE domestic telecom infrastructure equipment market fell by 34 per cent in fiscal 2003-04, according to the ninth Indian telecom industry report released by Voice & Data. The segment had grown by 33 per cent in the previous year.

The equipment market fell from Rs 14,771 crore in 2002-03 to Rs 9,704 in 2003-04 owing to the lack of big deployments and a dip in carrier switching equipment, which shrunk to Rs 9,704 crore in 2003-04 (Rs 14,771 crore).

While the fixed line switching market was estimated to be worth Rs 290 crore, the wireless equipment was estimated at Rs 5,600 crore. Ericsson emerged as the top vendor in this category.

However, the enterprise equipment market went up from Rs 4,037 crore in 2002-03 to Rs 4,562 crore in the previous year, registering a growth of 13 per cent, owing to growth in the mobile phones segment.

Nokia was the biggest equipment vendor, with revenue of Rs 3,181 crore. The top 10 equipment companies contributed 58 per cent of the equipment market size.

In the enterprise networking market, Cisco was the top vendor in terms of revenue with around 36 per cent market share.

The broadband equipment market, at Rs 5 crore, is still at a nascent stage as a majority of the service providers were firming up their plans.

The network security products market grew by an estimated 30 per cent to Rs 215 crore, with Cisco as the segment leader. The structured cabling market grew at a healthy rate of 23 per cent to reach Rs 325.5 crore, performing generally better than expectation.