Revenues of the Indian telecom equipment industry remained almost flat with little southward inclination, to touch Rs 1,13,188 crore in 2011-12, from Rs 1,14,133 crore i Telecom equipment industry’s revenue falls in 2011-12n FY2010-11, according to the annual survey by Voice & Data 2012.

According to the survey, close to half of the telecom equipment revenue came from carrier equipment manufacturers, which saw a dip of 5.06% to touch Rs 55,333 crore during the year.

In the previous year, FY10-11, the segment had registered Rs 58,285 crore revenue. Enterprise equipment grew at 8.89% to report revenues of Rs 23,183 crore for the same period, up from Rs 21,291 crore in FY10-11.

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% from Rs 34,557 crore a year ago.

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.

The Top 10 Club

Mobile handset maker Nokia had the highest revenue during the year followed by Korean electronics major Samsung. They were followed by telecom equipment manufacturers like Cisco, Huawei, NSN, Ericsson, and Alcatel-Lucent. The Top10 club also saw inclusion of software companies like TCS, Wipro and Tech Mahindra.

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 Top 10 club also saw Samsung registering maximum growth of 57.34% to capture the second position with revenues of Rs 9,000 crore, riding high on its smartphone and tablet portfolio.

Within the carrier equipment business, the biggest losers are segments like transmission, telecom turnkey and wireless infrastructure. Transmission segment dropped 21.88% 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%. The wireless infrastructure segment dipped 40.51% to record revenue of Rs 10,930 crore from Rs 18,374 crore a year ago.

The enterprise equipment business grew by 8.89% to reach Rs 23,183 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. The segments grew 16.02% and 15.15% respectively. 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.