V&D100 June 2012 by Dataquest

www.voicendata.com

Special Issue

`100

VOL 19 ISSUE 6 June 2012

Q&A: Dr Hamadoun Touré, secretary general, ITU

The Business of Communications

Fails Again

For the second consecutive year Indian telecom equipment industry falls flat • Carrier equipment down 5% • User device remains stagnant • Enterprise equipment up 9%

Volume-1

Telecom Equipment revenue `34,672 crore

`23,183 crore

`55,333 crore

1 FY 2011-12 (`113,188 crore)

`34,557 crore

`21,291 crore

`58,285 crore

FY 2010-11 (`114,133 crore) Segments Enterprise Equipment Carrier Equipment User Device

10 5

Growth 8.89% -5.06% 0.33%

Top 10 Telecom Equipment Vendors 168 pages including cover

Special subscription offer on Page 142

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contents

Website: www.voicendata.com EDITORIAL

GROUP EDITOR: Ibrahim Ahmad EDITOR: Pravin Prashant SR ASST EDITOR: Gyana Ranjan Swain SR CORRESPONDENT: Ritu Singh CORRESPONDENT: Akanksha Singh, Malini Nagaraj EDITORIAL ADVISOR: Prasanto Kumar Roy

DESK

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Atreyee Ganguly SR ASST EDITOR: Shobha Sivakumar SUB EDITOR: Charu, Ruchika Goel ASST MANAGER DESIGN: Bhagbat Pattnayak, Harnek Singh, Pramod S Rawat COVER DESIGN: Harnek Singh

BUSINESS

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OPERATIONS

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OVERALLANALYSIS

History Repeats Itself The Indian telecommunications industry in FY12 had nothing much to cheer about having burnt its fingers with 3G and the only bright spot being 4G emerging in the scene as a wiser opportunity The V&D 100 Top 10 Club Nokia

144

Samsung Thanks

to Trai’s heavy handedness, operators’ RoI and 146 Ciscoexpansion plans will go for a toss 148 Wipro

150

Huawei

152

NSN

154

Ericsson

156

MUMBAI 501/502 5th Floor Acropolis, Military Road, Marol Andheri (East), Mumbai – 400 059 Tel: 022 – 29204142/43/44 Fax: 022 – 29203964

Tech Mahindra

158

TCS

160

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Alcatel-Lucent

162

SECUNDERABAD Room No. 5&6, Srinath Commercial Complex, Sd Road, Secunderabad – 600 003 Tel: (040) 27841970, 27841665 Fax: (040) 27808134

Emerging Technologies

Pg.

Wireless Charging

Augmented Reality

Dash 7

BYOD

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| VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Regulars Tele-Stats.............................................................. 14

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contents

CARRIER EQUIPMENT 56

WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE Dismal Performance

WIRELINE BROADBAND Sidelined by Wireless

. . . . . . . Slow pick up of 3G and lack of 4G ecosystem led to the downfall .

OSS/BSS On Its Toes

The industry is being shaped significantly by service quality and availability, customer behavior, ease-ofuse of services, and social media

Managed Services Moving in Full Swing

Multi-vendor and multi-technology complexities are forcing the operators to move towards managed services

Transmission Sliding Down

Slow adoption of 3G and moderate growth in 2G coupled with political uncertainties resulted in the downfall

Test & Measurement Smooth Sailing Rising domestic demands and new technologies are contributing to the growth of the test and measurement industry

Telecom Turnkey All’s not Well

Wireless and wireline broadband should play ‘cooperative’ games rather than ‘competitive’ in providing broadband in the country

TELECOM CABLES Back In Gear

. . . . . . . . . . . . . Dealing with huge crisis for some time, telecom cable manufacturers are riding high as FY12 brings in promises of growth

Power Management Craving for Power . . . . . . . .

An infrastructure rollout is needed to create a conducive environment for the growth of telecom turnkey

Being an indispensible part of the telecom infrastructure, power management needs a timely boost from the industry

3G’s failure has brought down the much promising tower segment to its knees

The industry has gained with the CSPs investing heavily in embedded software, mobile communications, support systems, and network management

Telecom Towers Failing to Rise

Telecom Software Marching Ahead

| VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

ENTERPRISE EQUIPMENT

122 NETWORK INTEGRATION In Turbulent Times

The slowdown in major verticals like telecom and govt. took a toll

ROUTERS Treading Cautiously

For data transfer, wireless has always been the preferred medium, hence the focus on routers

Switch Standstill!

The market grew dynamically though it failed to translate into revenues

100

Voice Solutions On an Upswing

The industry reports growth due to cloud adoption, open standards, IP Telephony, UC and mobility rich platforms

contents

104

126

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thanks to mass adoption of smart mobile devices and BYOD, the wireless LAN industry is on cloud 9 .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Security threats are evolving parallely with the onset of newer and advanced technologiesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a heads-up for the security market

106

Modem Wireless to the Rescue

WLAN Up...Up and Higher!

STRUCTURED CABLING Gain, with Pain!

Network Security Making a Steady Impact

128

. . . . . . . . . . . . The rising demand for portable devices has pushed the wireless equipment business way ahead of its wired counterparts

DEVICE Review

164 The market for structured cabling is tricky, with a lot of potential but enough roadblocks too

Micromax Funbook Fun with Funbook

USER DEVICE

132 HANDSETS The Vanishing Act

FY12 saw many handset companies shut shop, the Big Five ruled the Indian market

136

FIXED PHONES More Gloomy Days Ahead

Though it is very difficult for this segment to regain its lost growth, it would not be annihilated either

138

Data Card Long Live the Card!

116

Audio-video Conferencing The New Real

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . The rise in enterprise mobility, penetration of smart devices, and proliferation of 3G has presented a new dimension for AV conferencing

FY12 saw many handset companies shut shop, the Big Five ruled the Indian market

165 Not OK!

Storage is one of the few fast growing and profitable segments in the ICT industry

140

Tablets Biggies Remain Biggies

The industry reports growth due to cloud adoption, open standards, IP Telephony, UC and mobility rich platforms

124

Network Storage Building Efficiency

As convenience and consumption become key, there is a substantial increase in the number of subscribers opting for data cards

For consumers cheap price is okay but cheap user experience is not, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what the Wishtel Ira is all about

| VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

editorial

Yes we can, but.. This has become a perpetual story. Something goes wrong somewhere and Indian IT users have to bear the brunt. There is a factory fire or a tsunami and the supplies are hit. Or the Indian rupee comes down against the dollar and the equipment becomes too expensive. There is a Chinese bug scare in all communications equipment, and the industry literally comes to a standstill. Or there is something else. Once it was the Thailand floods, and once it was the Japan earthquake and subsequent tsunami. And as Alok Bharadwaj, MAIT president very aptly put it, India has now been hit by the dollar tsunami. Indian users suffer so much, just because the equipment is not manufactured in India. Is local manufacturing the solution? Maybe yes, but the challenges that will come in the way of building India as a manufacturing base are huge. Talk to the industry, and you will realize that there is so much to be done before anyone will take us seriously. There are a host of government policies that support manufacturing, including bureaucracy-less single window clearance, that must be first put in place. The infrastructure required for manufacturing--power, roads, ports--is almost missing. There has to be a huge ecosystem of partners and suppliers, which will need to be simultaneously built up. All this will take time, but before that we need a strong government. Is that anywhere in sight? The other big question is if the local market will accept Made in India products. Technology decision makers in Indian companies believe, by and large, that stuff made in India is not entirely reliable. And that the kind of post-sales support that foreign companies offer, Indian vendors cannot. It is therefore unlikely that the products manufactured in India, even by MNCs will not be easily accepted. And if it is an Indian vendor with a Made in India product, the resistance will be even higher. Unfortunately, there have been some recent examples of Indian products that just failed on reliability and quality, that only goes to strengthen their argument. This is the mindset that will have to be broken. And that will not happen by just talking. Indian vendors will have to walk the talk--in terms of price, product quality, features, and support. Are they ready? A good example will be to study the Nokia manufacturing plant in Chennai, which is their biggest in the world. According to market reports, over 100 million phones are produced in this plant every year, by over 10,000 workers, 80% of whom are women. Out of this production, almost 50% is consumed in India, and the rest is exported to about 100 countries. Can both the industry and the government learn from this? And just try to replicate it?

<ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in> 10 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Indian Office: #342, IJMIMA Complex, Raheja Metroplex, Link Road, Malad (west), Mumbai 400 064 Headquarter: 21F, Cangsong Building(South), Tairan Industrial Park, Futian District, Shenzhen, P.R. China Tel: +91 9819821114 (India) +86-755-83636988 (China) Fax: +86-755-83631239 (China) Email: sales@donjin.com

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VOICEMAIL

`75 VOL 19

ISSUE 5

May 2012

VOICE&DATA

The Business of Communications

ThOU ShALL PAy 10x fOr SPECTrUM MAy 2012

Thou Shall Pay 10x for Spectrum

M-commerce Tata Comm

The Next Hope Betting BigBig on Cloud 92 pages including cover

Special subscription offer on Page 76

may 2012

2G Spectrum: Thou Shall Pay 10x This is regarding the latest cover story ‘Thou Shall Pay 10x for Spectrum’ (VOICE&DATA, May 2012). It is an excellent summary. n Natarajan Krishnamurthy, marketing and communications, NSN India via Email This is regarding the cover story ‘Thou Shall Pay 10x for Spectrum’ (VOICE&DATA, May 2012). Good article by the author, very comprehensive. n Pankaj via Email

Cable Digitization This is with reference to your story ‘Missing the Bus, Not a worry’ (VOICE&DATA, May 2012). This is a welcome move from the government side. This will definitely help India grow towards better technology adoption and use. n Samar via Email s e n d y o u r f e e dback FOR US t o s e r v e y o u better...

For subscription related issues, contact us at

rsevoicendata@cybermedia.co.in You can also write to Reader Service Executive, VOICE&DATA, Cyber House, B-35 Sector 32, Gurgaon-122 001, Haryana Fax: 91-124-2380694

This is with reference to your story ‘Missing the Bus, Not a worry’ (VOICE&DATA, May 2012). New products and technologies in cable TV industry will definitely revolutionize the industry in a big way. n Ramesh via Email

Mobile Services: Adoption to Rise This is with reference to your story ‘Mobile Services: Adoption to Rise’ (VOICE&DATA, May 2012). This is a very encouraging move by the regulator. This will have a positive impact on mobile adoption in rural India. n Megha via Email

RCom & Google: A Partnership Worth Watching This is with reference to your story ‘RCom & Google: A Partnership Worth Watching’ (VOICE&DATA, May 2012). The partnership will have a huge impact on RCom’s market share and market identity in India. n Lakshman via Email

M-commerce: The Next Big Hope! This is with reference to your story ‘M-commerce: The Next Big Hope!’ (VOICE&DATA, May 2012). The m-commerce activities can only be increased with more end-level awareness in India. Of all the m-commerce technologies, mobile banking will still be a major growth driver for this industry than anything else. n Suman via Email

Review: Sony Xperia S This is with reference to your review ‘Sony Xperia S: Experience that thrills’ (VOICE&DATA, May 2012). The phone is excellent in terms of camera quality and HD video recording with latest add on features like timescape and others making it a brilliant buy in its league. n Sumana via Email

Desi Brands on Foreign Trips This is with reference to your story on ‘Desi Brands on Foreign Trips’ (VOICE&DATA, May 2012). The story

12 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

gives an excellent overview of indigenous handset makers and their strategy to move to offshore markets. n Ashish via Email

ADVERTISEMENT INDEX

Advt Aastra, www.aastra.in ABS India www.absindia.com Agilent Aimil AMI www.aim.org.in Anritsu Cisco, Cisco.com/India Corning inquiriesin@corning.com D-Link Diologic, www.dialogic.com Donjin, www.donjin.com DOW, www.dowinside.com Fujitsu Huawei Enterprises www.huawei.com Hughes IBM, www.ibm.com Indus Towers www.industowers.com Leviton, www.leviton.com Matrix www.MatrixComSec.com Mediatek, www.mediatek.com Microsoft, www.microsoft.com Narda www.fastech-india-com NEC, www.nec.com Nokia, www.nokia.com Panasonic Panduit, www.panduit.com Patton, www.patton.com PDR, www.pdrworld.com Qualcomm Sai Info, www.saicare.com Shyam Networks www.shyamnetworks.com Siemens, www.siemens.com Smart Link Toshiba eStudio Voicegate Technologies www.voicegateindia.com Xtend Technologies www.xtendtech.com Yangtze optical Fibre Cable Ltd ZTE, www.zte.com

Page No. 2 103 71 75 54,55, 120,121 73 101 109 15 3 5 27 43 7 45, 63 9 83 107 33 29 10 35 23 25 117 111 51 79 168 61 17,77 21 19 47 65 69 13 167

TELE-STATS

Statistics on gsm City/Circle Metros

Feb’12

Mar’12

% Growth Over Previous Month

Subscriber Base

Delhi

27,748,880

28,178,930

1.55

Mumbai

22,773,454

22,559,732

-0.94

Chennai

11,380,567

10,757,876

-5.47

Kolkata

15,470,484

15,775,707

1.97

77,373,385

77,272,245

-0.13

Total A Circle

Subscriber Base

Maharashtra

49,330,893

49,887,821

1.13

Gujarat

40,135,821

40,792,632

1.64

Andhra Pradesh

48,645,136

48,822,848

0.37

Karnataka

37,762,780

37,727,032

-0.09

Tamil Nadu

50,758,671

51,458,148

1.38

226,633,301

228,688,481

0.91

Total

B Circle

26,732,190

26,303,237

-1.60

Punjab

22,394,055

22,491,648

0.44

Haryana

14,771,403

15,172,641

2.72

UP (W)

37,966,303

38,396,073

1.13

UP (E)

55,506,234

56,666,883

2.09

Rajasthan

34,312,036

35,197,915

2.58

Madhya Pradesh

33,790,932

34,312,200

1.54

West Bengal and A&N

33,346,467

33,664,255

0.95

258,819,620

262,204,852

1.31

C Circle Himachal Pradesh

Operators

Subscribers

% Market Share

Bharti airtel

181,279,296

27.30

Vodafone Essar

150,465,330

22.66

IDEA

112,722,692

16.97

BSNL

94,676,031

14.26

Aircel

62,572,579

9.42

Uninor

42,431,924

6.39

Videocon

5,951,588

0.90

MTNL

5,593,378

0.84

S Tel

3,430,288

0.52

Loop Mobile

3,267,241

0.49

Etisalat DB

1,692,673

0.25

All India

664,083,020

Subscriber Base

Kerala

Total

Market Share-February, 2012

Company-wise Market Share (in %age) 16.97 Idea 22.66 Vodafone Essar

Subscriber Base 5,613,125

5,645,731

0.58

Bihar

46,161,294

46,936,787

1.68

Odisha

19,095,313

19,353,178

1.35

Assam

10,829,274

11,095,640

2.46

North East

7,200,308

7,316,613

1.62

J&K

5,490,954

5,569,493

1.43

Total

94,390,268

95,917,442

1.62

All India

57,216,574

664,083,020

1.04

14 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

100.00

27.30 Bharti airtel 0.25 Etisalat 0.49 Loop Mobile 0.52 S Tel 0.84 MTNL

14.26 BSNL 9.42 Aircel

6.39 Uninor 0.90 Videocon

All India GSM: 664,083,020 subscribers Source: COAI

TELE-STATS

Statistics on CDMA Wireline Network

Wireless Network

Feb’11

Mar’11

% Growth Over Previous Month

Bharti airtel

3,259,957

3,269,949

0.30

Reliance Communications & RTL

1,269,694

1,269,750

0.01

Quadrant Televentures (Formerly HFCL)

200,222

200,432

Sistema Shyam Teleservices

48,070 1,423,544

Feb’11

Mar’11

Reliance Communications & RTL

152,001,566

153,045,692

0.68

1,381,276

1,331,392

-3.75

0.10

Quadrant Televentures (Formerly HFCL)

46,659

3.02

Sistema Shyam Teleservices

15,382,148

15,803,039

2.66

1,441,370

1.24

Tata Teleservices

81,887,732

81,745,797

-0.17

6,201,487 6,228,160

0.43

250,652,722 251,925,920

0.51

Tata Teleservices All India

% Growth Over Previous Month

Operator

All India

Source: Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI)

ITU Statistics

Internet Users per 100 Inhabitants, 2011*

Internet Users, By Level of Development

Internet Users per 100 Inhabitants 2011* Europe

74.4

The Americas

56.3

CIS**

47.6

World

34.7

Arab States

29.1

Asia & Pacific

27.2

Africa

12.8

Estimated Internet Users (In Mil- 2006 lions)

2011*

Developed

649

915

Developing

503

1,505

Total

1,152

2,421

Internet users, by level of development

Internet users per 100 inhabitants 2011* 80

2006

2011

70 60

Developed

Developing

Developed

35 29

Developing

13 10 0 Europe

The Americas

CIS**

World

Arab States

Asia & Pacific

Africa

*Estimate The developed/developing country classifications are based on the UN M49, Source: ITU World Telecommunication /ICT Indicators database

16 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

NEWS

and

VIEWS

interview

‘We plan to conduct phone compatibility tests with each of our headsets before launch’ going to have a key product launch by the end of this year to set the platform for 2013, so I will have to keep you in suspense first! But stay tuned to Jabra, we will have more exciting products for the consumers.

Ann Goh head of sales, South Asia Region, GN Netcom Which new areas have you tapped for India? We are moving our focus towards lifestyle consumers. Hence we have upgraded even our entry-level platform products to have multimedia streaming and HD voice capabilities, offering more value for the customers. Secondly, we have also taken a step forward with colors. Noting that consumers today want to match devices with their style and color choices, we have launched 4 new colors for Jabra Clipper. They are tangerine tango, new pink, turquoise, and white. How has been 2011 for Jabra? 2011 has been a good year for the company. We have achieved #1 position in Europe and also #1 cross brand in China, based on GFK data. What are the new products in the pipeline? Being the global leader in headsets (Jabra owns 20% market share of headsets globally), we are constantly pushing our R&D specialists for innovation. We are

What are the new demands of your customers? Consumers today want devices that can do everything for them. Hence the upgrade of our mono platform (except BT2045) is necessary so that even for early adopters of bluetooth headset buyers, they can use their voice apps with the same headset. Second is with the personalization trend. More and more consumers want to personalize their headset and match them with their phones, clothes, or style. Hence we are launching Clipper colors to understand how the market responds to this variation. Subsequently, you can expect Jabra to be launching more colors which are in line with the latest color trends. What is the size of your retail presence in India and how do you plan to strengthen it further? We are present in all the tier-1 and -2 cities. We are now planning to expand deeper into these cities. We have just launched some schemes for RDs and retail channels. Bluetooth technology many times faces interoperability issues. How do you handle this? We have a lot of expertise in handling interoperability issues. As a third party cross brand with 10 years of experience in this field, we will conduct phone compatibility tests with each of our headsets before the launch. Ritu Singh ritus@cybermedia.co.in

18 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Nokia and Carl Zeiss Extend Partnership Nokia has extended its 7-year partnership with Carl Zeiss, a German manufacturer of optical systems. This partnership has led to manufacturing of camera smartphones such as Nokia N8 and Nokia 808 PureView. Nokia has also announced that Nokia 808 PureView would be launched in May 2012 in India, Russia, and in other select markets. Nokia 808 PureView features PureView technology to represent imaging technology, sensors, Carl Zeiss optics, and Nokia developed imaging algorithms. It also features Dolby headphone technology, HD 1080p video recording and playback with 4X zoom.

Aricent and Mindspeed Launch LTE eNodeB Framework The Aricent group and Mindspeed announced the launch of a joint LTE eNodeB reference framework. This framework includes solution design, from RF interface through S1 and X2 interfaces and includes Aricent base station software stacks integrated with Mindspeed baseband and silicon. The base station solution is designed to help telecom equipment manufacturers (TEMs) deliver highperformance base stations in multiple form factors, including femto, pico, metro and micro-cell configurations and is available for both LTE FDD and TD-LTE variants.

DragonWave and NSN Amend Divestment Agreement DragonWave and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) have chosen to amend divestment agreement for DragonWave’s acquisition of NSNs’ microwave transport business. As part of the amended agreement the planned closing date is June 1, 2012, subject to closing conditions, said NSN. DragonWave would be a strategic supplier of packet microwave and other related products to Nokia Siemens Networks. The 2 companies would jointly coordinate on technology development activities.

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‘We have tied up with almost all major telecom operators to reach the rural people’ Behtar Zindagi has established itself as a one-stop-solution provider for the rural segment.

Praveen Rajpal CEO, Handygo Technologies

Please brief us about your partners in reaching out to the masses. We, at Handygo, offer mobile based solutions to the farmers. We provide them the latest information regarding agriculture, weather, health, education, finance, livestocks, fisheries, etc, among others. ‘Behtar Zindagi’, one of our flagship products and an IVR based solution, focuses on the upliftment of the rural society in a range of areas such as WAP productivity & income, health, financial inclusion, career, and education. Behtar Zindagi is available in 18 different languages and dialects which reduce the language barrier. Through this rural initiative, we are poised to reduce the dependency of the farmers on agents for the most basic information. For our Behtar Zindagi products, we have tied up with almost all the major telecom operators—Idea, airtel, Uninor, Tata, Reliance, etc, to reach the rural people. With the government, through NTP 2012, also laying emphasis on the spread of mobile services in the rural regions, we have already forayed there and introduced m-governance, m-health, m-commerce, m-education, and m-entertainment services.

Handygo’s major focus is on IVR (interactive voice response) based services, what are your major IVR offerings? Handygo offers Value Added Services (VAS) through mobile entertainment and content across video, messaging, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) platforms. Our major IVR offerings are Behtar Zindagi; Ehsaas—sexual literacy; Fame on Game an exclusive Games portal on IVR; Mobi Shiksha—education and employment; Soochna Shakti—rural women empowerment, etc. We always wanted to cater the masses. That’s why these products are designed by IVR and complimented by mobile internet because IVR removes the literacy barrier and thus makes it easier for people to use it as and when required. For example, we have 50 doctors and many hospitals on roll for our health services segment. However we are in the process of giving the final shape to our plans and will soon come up with some announcements. However it would be too early to reveal the same. To create the awareness about the products, we are doing lot of promotional activities as well. The VAS players need to delink partially from the operators and start focusing on non-operator business in a big way. What is your view on this? It’s a very good thought and we also believe that we should focus on non-operator business as well. We have already foreseen the complexities of the business without the operators and that’s why we are already working on developing our business strategies around this thought for the past 3 years. Ritu Singh ritus@cybermedia.co.in

20 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Tulip, EMC Offer Back-up-as-aService & On-demand Storage After bestowing an international recognition to India in the data center industry, by setting up, Asia’s biggest, and the world’s third largest data center in India; Tulip Telecom’s next ideal move is to leverage it to the fullest. Now, Tulip has equipped its infrastructure to deliver managed back-up and storage services in India in association with EMC. As per the deal, EMC technologies such as EMC VNX unified storage, EMC Avamar, and EMC Data Domain technologies enables Tulip to provide information storage, back up, archival, and deduplication technologies to customers in a ‘pay-as-you-use’ model.

Satyam-Symantec Tie Up for Network Security Mahindra Satyam and Symantec Corp have come together, improving their current relationship, to work jointly improving Satyam’s smart grid network security, further providing a secure and effective smart grid services globally. Satyam, a leader in smart grid sector, plans to deliver cyber security and compliance solutions to Symantac, leveraging Symantec’s smart grid solutions for control center security, data control, and management, as well as system and device security while utilizing Satyam’s extensive experience in deploying and managing smart grid solutions.

Nokia Sues HTC, RIM, ViewSonic for Patent Infringement Nokia has sued its rivals HTC, RIM, and ViewSonic in various courts of the US and Germany for alleged patent infringement. The Finnish company had said that a total of 45 patents have been infringed by its tech rivals. Nokia has filed case against HTC in the US International Trade Commission (ITC), against HTC and Viewsonic in Federal District Court of Delaware, US, and against HTC and RIM in the regional court in Dusseldorf, Germany. Nokia has also filed suits against all 3 companies in the regional courts in Mannheim and Munich, Germany.

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‘We plan to build 5 more PoPs in India’

Donny Cheah regional managing director, SingTel USA, India, and UAE What was the purpose of your visit to India? I am here to meet with our key customers to understand how can we serve them and their growth plans better. Also, we have our kick-off workshop with our India team as our new FY has just started. We also organized a customer event in Delhi to share our capabilities and service offerings. What are SingTel’s plans for India? We may come up with 5 more PoPs (Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh, and 2 more cities) in the next 2 years depending on the demand growth. As of now, SingTel has 2 international gateways, one in Chennai and the other one in Mumbai. We have a resilient network with 7 dual PoPs in Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, and Kolkata connected in a mesh network. What is the company’s focus for this fiscal? The Indian businesses are expanding globally, so the demand for international connectivity is increasing. We have 22% stake in airtel. Anyone who is interested

in international connectivity is on our radar. Up till 2008, Indian businesses only had the US and Europe on their mind but post 2008, the growth is coming from regions like Middle East, APAC (Hong Kong, China, etc), Australia, and Africa. There has been a change in the business outlook. For Indian region, the company has been focusing on verticals like IT/ITeS, BFSI, manufacturing, logistics, and pharmaceutical/healthcare. The company also has telco customers in India like Aircel, Vodafone, Tata, Sify, and Tulip. Brief us about SingTel’s latest cloud applications. We have received phenomenal response for our cloud services. Businesses are investing in them in a smaller way first and as they accrue benefits, we are hopeful that they shall take up more of these. We have signed up about 300,000 SMB customers for our SaaS services within one-and-a-half years. Infrastructure-as-aService (IaaS) has also shown a traction. The recently held Youth Olympics in Singapore is an IaaS success story. SingTel has launched PowerON, a suite of end-to-end cloud based services available on demand sans any hefty costs and complexities, allowing businesses to focus their resources on building and sharpening their competitive edge. In fact, these services can reduce the operating cost up to 73%. For on demand solutions, SingTel has tied up with many partners like Symantec for security on-demand (web, email, and end-point security services) and Arkadin for cloud conferencing solutions. Similar partnerships for various cloud services are in place with Cisco, Google, EMC, SAP, Intuit, and VMWare. Akanksha Singh akankshas@cybermedia.co.in

22 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Ciena to Build 100G European Link Ciena bags a deal from Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW) to build Europe’s longest 100G network link. This link will support intercontinental traffic between Monaco and London. European 100G coherent network will be built on Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform along with WaveLogic coherent optical processors. This 100G network will support future growth demand for capacity over Cable & Wireless Worldwide’s European network. A key driver for increased capacity requirements will be the Europe India Gateway (EIG), a submarine link between Western Europe and Mumbai, India, which is expected to carry backbone traffic to London, United Kingdom.

ADTRAN Acquires NSNs’ Fixedline ADTRAN has completed the acquisition of Nokia Siemens Networks’ fixedline broadband access business and associated professional services and network management solutions. The transaction was initially announced in December 2011. As of May 4, 2012, the business, including approximately 340 employees globally in engineering, R&D, sales and professional services, transferred to ADTRAN.

airtel Launches 4G in Bengaluru Bengaluru has gone 4G. After the recent inaugural launch in Kolkata, airtel now brings 4G LTE services to Bengaluru. 4G services would cover 25% of the data market in the city. Bengaluru network is powered by Huawei. Customers can avail 4G services by purchasing CPE devices— indoor CPE with Wi-Fi and 4G multimode dongle. Indoor CPE with Wi-Fi is priced at `7,750 and 4G multi-mode dongle is available for `7,999. In terms of service tariff, 4G services are available in 4 packs—Break free for `999 (6 GB of free data), Break free max for Rs 1,399 (9 GB of free data), Break free Ultra for `1,999 (18 GB of free data) and Break Ultimate for `2,999 (30 GB of free data).

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‘EMC focuses on building skillsets’ making it much more affordable to build real-time analytics to go beyond structured and unstructured. Earlier, it was a complex deployment but now they can start small and can keep building on it. The technologies have become much more affordable.

Rajesh Janey president, EMC India

How is big data picking up in India? In India, we are witnessing a lot of interest in big data. There are 2 significant things—storage of big data and analytics of big data. On storage, there is a lot of demand coming from oil and gas sector, animation industry, healthcare, etc. On the analytics segment, retail, telecom, and banking are going in for big data. Predictive analytics solutions that can make sense of large amounts of data at attractive price points and scalability will drive adoption in India. How do you perceive the implementation of big data in the next 5 years? Why 5 years? Even now, if given an option, organizations would like to take advantage of the information they know or the information that is already available in the social media. Actionable intelligence will facilitate to bring the useful information back to the structured data. We are currently working with some large corporates, who term it as a ‘transformation journey’; and have opted for big data analytics. Technologies like GreenPlan are

What are your strategies to leverage big data? We have invested heavily on big data. We invested over $1.5 bn in India for 5 years from 2010 to 2014. This is an overall investment which goes into center of excellency, sales development, expansion of R&D, and marketing. EMC is focusing on building skillsets. There is a tremendous gap of skillsets in the industry. Through EMC Academic Alliance programme, we are collaborating with institutions in the areas of storage, cloud computing, backup recovery systems, architecture and data science, and big data analytics technologies. We intend to create data scientists. We are addressing an entire gamut of things on big data. We are also working with our partners to build solutions around big data. How is the response from the telecom sector? The response is good. Two of our large customers are from the telecom vertical—one is a service provider and the other is a VAS provider. Telecom is one key area as there are large numbers of customers and there is a need to analyse data in real time. Big data offers real-time analytics and real-time feedback. So, it is possible to tweet the plan in real time and benefit from it. Big data is not just about pure play storage, it is about volume of the storage, velocity of the storage, complexity, variety that is structured and unstructured—that is one of the significant advantages. Malini N malinin@cybermedia.co.in

24 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Telenor Chairman Harald Norvik Resigns Harald Norvik, the chairman of the board of directors of Telenor has resigned from his post after a Norwegian government minister expressed lack of confidence in him. A company jointly owned by Telenor and labor unions sold a 50% stake in TV2 to Egmont for 2.1 bn Norwegian crowns ($367 mn) in January, giving the Danish firm 100% control. The minister was apparently not happy with this deal. Harald Norvik will continue as chairman of the board until a new chairman has been elected by the Corporate Assembly. Norvik has served as chairman of Telenor since May 31, 2007.

Qualcomm to Support Clearwire’s LTE Network Qualcomm has announced that it will add support for Clearwire’s upcoming LTE TDD network in North America. Qualcomm will add support of 3GPP Band 41 to its existing 3G/4G multi-mode, multi-band LTE chipsets. This new enhancement builds on Qualcomm’s existing multi-mode, multi-band support for LTE FDD, LTE TDD, and major broadband wireless standards. Qualcomm LTE chipsets supporting the B41 band in combination with other LTE FDD/TDD bands are scheduled for commercial availability later this year.

Trai Prescribes QoS Parameters for 3G Voice Calls The Indian telecom regulator, Trai has issued the regulations to the Standards of Quality of Service (QoS) parameters for 3G voice calls. Trai has amended the existing Standards of QoS of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Regulations, 2009 dated March 20, 2009. These parameters were prescribed keeping in view the 2G networks deployed by the service providers, said Trai. Since the service providers are also providing 3G services currently, the authority is of the view that for voice service provided by the 3G networks the existing network related QoS parameters shall suffice, except that the nomenclature for some of the terms used in the existing regulations and the measurement methodologies need to be amended.

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‘We are targeting `100 crore revenue in the first year from IDCs’ 6 months and had pilot wins with few organizations. Please mention the names of clients roped in for IDCs so far. The BSNL IDC has currently signed contracts with three government organizations, ie, Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL), and Punjab Treasury. EPFO will be using our facility under a one-year contract whereas IOCL and Punjab Treasury have signed a 3-year contract.

Kiran Bhagwanani CEO, Dimension Data

Brief us about the internet data centers (IDCs) launched recently. Dimension Data has built, designed, and will manage the internet data centers for BSNL under a 10-year contract. Located in Mumbai, Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Ludhiana, and Ghaziabad, these six data centers are India’s first uptime institute certified tier-3 data centers. The total area of all these IDCs is close to 65,000 sq ft. BSNL will offer managed co-location, hosting, and cloud services through these centers. The revenues for the IDCs under this partnership will be split between BSNL and Dimension Data as per the contract signed. Why were these IDCs launched 2 years after the announcement in 2010? We were designing and building the data centers across 6 locations. These data centers are built in old exchanges of BSNL, hence the entire infrastructure was required to be set up. There was time devoted to testing of these services, once the set-up was completed. We have been operational for the last

How much is the company expecting in terms of revenue from this venture? We are targeting to get around 25 clients and `100 crore in revenue in the first year and eventually `300 crore annually. We are expecting some demand for cloud and hosted services from BSNL’s existing clientele like government organizations, distance education providers, and private enterprises. BSNL has a spread of more than 500 clients across the country and Dimension Data has 400 clients, which we plan to target for IDC services. What are the focus areas for the company this fiscal? Our focus for this fiscal would be on providing IT as a service. Our endeavor will be to help our clients to innovate and add value to the services they provide to their customers. IT services need to be aligned to business of an organization in order to get maximum RoI. We strive to provide IT services that are not just for functional support but an enabler of business growth. We cannot share the exact details but we have grown as per the industry standards. We have added new dimensions to our services and have relied significantly on research and innovation. Akanksha Singh akankshas@cybermedia.co.in

26 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Telenor to Write Down NOK 3.9 bn India Exposure Telenor ASA expresses concern over the acceptance of Trai’s proposals on spectrum auction by DoT. Telenor says that it would be forced to exit the Indian market if the current plans for spectrum auction goes ahead. Its exit plan is also due to the cancellation of 2G licenses. Telenor would write down India exposure in its Q1 2012 financial results and it would be presented on May 8, 2012. The company said that as a precautionary measure, Telenor ASA has decided to write down the remaining fixed and intangible assets in India amounting to NOK (Norwegian Krone) 3.9 bn (NOK 2.6 bn after non-controlling interests)

OnMobile Net Profit Dips by 82% in Q4 2012 OnMobile net profit in the fourth quarter has declined by 82% from `269 mn in Q4 2011 to `48 mn in this quarter. Revenue for the fiscal quarter was `1,776 mn, a 33% increase versus the comparable period a year ago. Revenue at the end of the Q4 FY11 stood at `1,333 mn. OnMobile’s net profit has declined by 7% in FY12, from `892 mn in FY11 to `831 mn this fiscal. OnMobile plans to share a dividend of `1 per fully paid up equity share of `10 each, aggregating to `133.7 mn, including dividend distribution tax, subject to approval of shareholders.

T-Mobile Selects Ericsson for LTE Ericsson has been selected by T-Mobile USA to support the company’s $4 bn network transformation, which includes preparatory work for the launch of LTE in 2013. T-Mobile USA will be the first carrier in North America to deploy Ericsson’s AIR technology, enabling the carrier to improve existing coverage and quickly launch LTE. Ericsson will install the radio, tower and switch room equipment, as well as provide consulting and systems integration and rollout services. Ericsson will also provide turnkey services in the areas of installation, commissioning, integration, and migration.

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RIM Appoints New COO & CMO

‘We service more than 65 mn mobile subscribers every month’

Dr Inderpal S Mumick CEO and founder, Kirusa

How has the journey been in India so far? We started in 2005 from a set-up in Gurgaon. Since then we have been moving forward. We focus on voice SMS to generate revenue as voice SMS has added a new dimension to messaging. Today, every operator is encouraging voice SMS application that transcends language barrier. The uptake of voice SMS started about 18 months ago across the nation. Hence, we have been focusing on voice SMS solutions in India and especially for the rural India. The acceptance of voice SMS in rural area has been good and so we will continue to focus on the area and move forward. We have invented voice SMS and have filed more than 20 patent applications covering a broad array of multi-modal and voice SMS technologies. How has been the uptake of voice SMS industry in India as well as globally? The uptake of voice SMS in India has been pretty good. The rural subscribers prefer to listen to voice SMS over text SMS. We have been receiving billions of such calls daily.

We service more than 65 mn mobile subscribers every month, who collectively make more than 600 mn monthly calls to services offered by Kirusa. The company has a market reach of more than 500 mn subscribers. We are present in 20 countries and have reached a landmark of half a billion subscribers from just one service that is voice SMS. In voice SMS we offer applications on infotainment, social media, and as well as news. The company said that its mobile services, including the Voice SMS service, mobile social media, and mobile infotainment, have fueled the company’s global expansion to 20 countries across 4 continents. We would also be adding a new application related to voice in this quarter. Who are your customers? Kirusa’s voice SMS solution has been selected by carriers like Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Tata Communications, Aircel, and Loop mobile. We also offer services to global players like Vodafone, airtel, Tigo, Etisalat, Vodacom, Claro—the largest mobile phone network in Latin America, China Mobile in Pakistan, Grameenphone in Bangladesh, and Warid Telecom in Pakistan. Do you offer any voice SMS application catering to enterprises? As of now we are not offering any such applications. But talks are in the pipeline and very soon we are planning to come up with such application. In the era of 3G and 4G, what are the scopes of your application? The 3G and 4G world certainly add to the growing acceptance of voice SMS application. We see the next wave of opportunity opening up with the acceptance of 3G as well as the uptake of smartphone users in the country. Ritu Singh ritus@cybermedia.co.in

28 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Research In Motion (RIM) expands its executive leadership team. RIM has appointed wireless industry veterans— Kristian Tear as chief operating officer and Frank Boulben as chief marketing officer. Both of them will continue to focus on expanding its global customer base along with the executive team. Tear would be responsible for overseeing all operational functions for handhelds and services, including research and development, products, global sales, manufacturing, and supply chain. Boulben will oversee global marketing efforts at RIM, in his new role.

Nokia to Pay Dividend of EUR 0.20 per Share Nokia would share the dividend of EUR 0.20 per share for 2011, said Nokia in an annual general meeting held on May 3rd. The company would pay the dividend on or around May 23, 2012. Nokia plans to repurchase a maximum of 360 mn Nokia shares. This would enable Nokia to develop the capital structure of the company, finance or for acquisitions or other arrangements, settle the company’s equity based incentive plans, be transferred for other purposes, or be canceled. The meeting has authorized board of directors to resolve the re-buy of shares.

SSTL Files Curative Petition in the Supreme Court Russian telecom major Sistema and Shyam Telecom joint venture SSTL today filed a curative petition in the supreme court against the cancellation of its licenses. The company that operates under MTS brand, in the curative petition, has asked the apex court to set aside its earlier order of license cancellation. SSTL has today filed a curative petition in the supreme court to set aside the supreme court order in cancellation of its licenses. “SSTL has consistently maintained that being a pure-play CDMA operator, its legal case is significantly different compared to other mobile operators,” said the company in its petition.

Interview of the Month

‘Policy is right, but how spectrum can be allocated should be addressed’ 30 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

In his second term as secretary general, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Dr Hamadoun Touré is committed to ITU’s mission of connecting the world and achieving millennium development goals (MDG) through ICT. His main focus today is to get a broadband plan implemented across countries so that there is no broadband divide. A long-standing champion of ICT, as a driver of social and economic development, Dr Toure has served as director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) from 1998-2006 and has placed considerable emphasis on implementing the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and launching projects based on partnerships. Dr Touré started his career as managing engineer in Mali’s first international earth station in 1979. He joined Intelsat’s assistance and development program in 1985 and later was appointed as Intelsat’s group director for Africa and the Middle East in 1994. In 1996, he joined ICO Global Communications as African regional general manager, spearheading the companies’ activities across the African region. A national of Mali, Dr Touré holds a masters degree in electrical engineering from the Technical Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Leningrad and PhD from the University of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of Moscow. Speaking to VOICE&DATA, Touré spoke about: International regulations, problems faced by emerging and developing economies, Trai recommendations on spectrum auctions, ITU Telecom World 2012, and device standardization. Excerpts—

—Dr Hamadoun Touré, secretary general, ITU

hat’s happening on international regulations? The World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) that will happen on December 3-14, 2012, will review International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs), which define the general principles for the provision and operation of international telecommunications. It will replace ITR finalized in 1988 and set the stage for regulation, privatization, and competition. We also need to have new parameters for convergence and broadband and also focus on reuse of 3G. The focus should be on increasing investment in infrastructure and driving content. One needs to also balance next-generation broadband, digital broadcasting, mobile communication, and rural communication at the same time. One should look at light-touch forward looking regulation which would help us last 15-20 years. Another important aspect is cyber security and how to deal with

What are the problems faced by emerging and developing economies? India is the lighthouse of the telecom industry and many regulatory solutions relevant for the Indian market are found to be right for many countries. So, it is important to visit India to address these issues. It is a challenging time for all industries. For example, there was lack of regulation in financial sector and presently it is well regulated. We need a light-headed regulation which makes the rules of the game clear. We need to make sure that private sector finds its right balance. We need to also bring public interest ahead of everybody. Key issues such as job creation, network efficiency, and issues of climate change are important for the world today. Also addressing the issues of MDG where broadband will be the key and that’s why we created broadband commission 2 years ago. What’s the purpose of your India visit? We are talking to the government entities—ministry, DoT, Trai, TDSAT, industry people, and associations.

legal, regulatory, national coordination, technical readiness for capacity building, and global cooperation mechanism to reduce cyber crime. We agree to give access to the citizens and then protect them and not harbor terrorists or criminals. All countries need to work together since it is a global phenomenon which will have a global response. So, all the operators and industry should come together for a common purpose to fulfill the common needs and aspirations for the future. And all this will act as a growth catalyst for the industry. What are the key issues that are troubling ITU? The convergence of voice, video, and data infrastructure to drive information; settlement between operators; taxation issues which impede investor confidence; and security, spam, and common code of conduct in service space. The focus is to put enough synergy in all these sectors so that growth in infrastructure will lead to growth in data traffic.

What’s your opinion on current Trai recommendations on spectrum auctions? Policy is right but how spectrum can be allocated should be addressed. There is enough spectrum available to all operators. We have been focusing on technology neutral policy from 2001 onwards and we have been constantly repeating these regulations. Licensing will lead to a particular technology so one should leave it to the market to decide which technology they can implement in the most appropriate and cheap way. We have always advised policy makers not to overcharge license fees as ultimately consumers will have to pay for it. India is well known for lower tariffs. The real dilemma for operators is higher taxes. For government, it is an additional revenue source if such services are given; but, one cannot milk the cow too much or kill the golden egg. So, there is a right balance and we are keen to make sure operators and government balance their interest.

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JUNE 2012 | VOICE&DATA | 31

Interview of the Month

We are using more ICT tools, more accounting mechanisms and as a result there are a lot of savings in the organization Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new at ITU Telecom World 2012 in Dubai? ITU Telecom World is more forum-centric than exhibition and more emphasis is on brainstorming with political leaders, industry leaders, academicians, and others. The timing is right for Arab region as the market is booming. The main highlight is National Broadband Plan as this is linked to MDG goals. Broadband will help in achieving health and education MDG goals as 2015 timeline is running out. The whole purpose is to exchange best practices and not to make mistakes already committed by other countries. There is a clear objective for broadband guidelines and definition of broadband be it 1-5 Mbps as Korea is presently at 100 Mbps from a long time. How has private sector participation helped ITU? We value private sector participation in ITU. Coming from the private sector, we

have not only changed the management but private promoters have made it more transparent and also paperless. We are using more ICT tools, more accounting mechanism and as a result there are lot of savings in the organization. ITUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success is due to transparency and strong base of members state and private sector participation. We have also added academia and universities as it helps us in cross fertilization and proper feedback. What is ITU doing for standardization of devices, accessories, and chargers? Standardization is easy for the consumers as it helps in keeping the cost low. One can save a lot in terms of CO2 contribution to climate change. Around 98 mn tonnes of CO2 will be saved by over 6 bn mobile phone users. We hope to see very soon in the market, handsets with a common charger. The universal charger standardization is not only about socket, plug but also standby mode that will

enable consumption of 0.03 watt when it is not plugged in but also when it is fully charged. The ICT industry is not investing in infrastructure but applications. So, what is the road ahead for the service providers? The investment on infrastructure is increasing. It is steady but not exponential. One has to do enough investment in infrastructure for development of data traffic otherwise there will be breakage of traffic everywhere. One has to look at revenue share mechanisms otherwise we will go against the wall, and we will not go too far. We are talking about rolling the network so that internet will be used and both of them have to go hand in hand so that internet and telecom community can go hand in hand. We need to go beyond, sit down and talk seriously and ITR is the right opportunity for the industry to come up and do it right so that we can move ahead for another 20 years. What are some of the things which you still want to achieve? In the first term, the focus was on digital divide, cyber security, making ICT and communication affordable, security for children, and online protection. In the second term, the focus is on ongoing issues of cyber security, broadband, and bridging digital divide. Focus is also on National Broadband Plan (legal and regulatory). Priority is also to connect countries which are remote or land locked or small island countries, so that we can move forward to a knowledge society. The overall journey has been pleasant as we have made good relationships with members, built trust and leadership through inhouse expertise and new management tools. We have also brought transparency and efficiency through public and private partnership. In the next 3 years, there are indefinite challenges but if we work together the world will be completely different. Nobody can predict about technology but it would be beautiful. Pravin Prashant pravinp@cybermedia.co.in

32 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Emerging Tech Wireless Charging

Living Free

As more gadgets become mobile and wireless, we’re breaking free of cords and wires Highlights        

o r l d o ve r, s m a r tphone manufacturers are working on newer technologies that can make their smartphones smarter than ever. One such technology is wireless charging. Means, you can charge your mobile phone without directly connecting the device to a power source using wire or cable. Rumors are that manufacturers like Samsung and HTC already have such devices. Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC Rezound are believed to have this feature. The fact of the matter is that any gadget can have this feature provided there is a power transfer unit which must be connected to the power source and the power capture unit which will be embedded in the gadget to charge it. However wireless charging is not a new concept, though it is being ratified in the recent times. Nicola Tesla, Austrian scientist, invented the wireless power transmission in the early 1900s during his famous Colorado Springs experiment. Unfortunately, his invention went into obscurity but now it is being accepted by major players in various industries.

How Does it Work? Like the radio station transmits the songs in the form of radio waves and the receiver decodes it before we listen to the song, charging the cellphone or iPods or iPads wirelessly is possible using the same formula of physics. The wireless charging system includes 2 units—power transfer unit and power reception unit, both are made up of copper coils. The transfer unit is connected to the power source and it produces a non-radiative magnetic field around its space oscillating in MHz frequency. It means this field will not be widely spread across in space unlike the electromagnetic radiation. So, only the space around this transfer unit is filled with the resonant magnetic field. When the receiving unit is brought nearby this non-radiative magnetic field then it starts resonating. This receiver is specifically designed to resonate in this magnetic field. The electric current running in the transfer unit coil induces another current in the receiving coil, hence transferring the power. This current generated in the receiving coil can be used to power the device. Using this

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Hands-free No plugs or charging cords needed No need to plug in or unplug Non-radiative mode of energy transfer is a safe technology Less cables, wires, cords Presence of metal walls between the units can act as a barrier and prevent the power transmission Distance of power transmission is less Some amount of energy is lost during power transmission

method, over several kilowatts of power can be transferred safely and efficiently over significantly larger distances irrespective of the alignment. Devices kept from some centimeters to several meters far can couple together and transfer the power, but this also depends on some conditions like amount of power to be transferred, capturing device size, etc. So, the power transfer efficiency mainly depends on the distance between the transfer unit and the receiving unit.

Recent Developments Samsung and Qualcomm have recently joined forces and formed the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) which aims to accelerate the development of wireless charging. Besides Samsung and Qualcomm, Ever Win Industries, Gill Industries, Peiker Acustic, Powermat Technologies, and SK Telecom are also members, and more are welcome to join, according to the 2 companies. Shipments of wireless power enabled devices are expected to surpass 100 mn by 2015, according to IMS Research, a market research company.

Emerging Tech Augmented Reality

Can It be a Game Changer? Offering entertainment with real-life like experiences, AR can certainly give a boost to marketing campaigns Highlights  AR is the third largest revenue

earning enterprise app after LBS and games  Market size: $2 mn in 2010  Expected to reach $1.5 bn by 2015  Smartphones with AR: 8 mn in 2009, rose to 120 mn in 2010

treasure of data at the users’ fingertips and an extension of virtual reality, Augmented Reality (AR) is allowing users to interact virtually with their surroundings.

What is Augmented Reality? AR is a term used to describe the live view of a physical, real-world environment that is augmented by computer-generated sensory inputs, such as sound or graphics. A typical AR environment has digital information transposed onto a real-world view.

Blurring the Line The experts are pulling graphics out of your television screens or computer displays and integrating them into realworld environments, as they continue to blur the line between what’s real and what’s computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel, and smell. In the recently held Mobile World Congress, Qualcomm showed how users can aim their phone at an ad from Norwegian boot maker Viking, and see different models superimposed over the ad. For its 2011 winter catalog,

Moosejaw, an outerwear retailer, utilized the AR technology to give viewers an ‘X-ray vision’ while looking through the catalog. Even Heinz Ketchup bottles offer recipes to anyone with a smartphone. Qualcomm is also working with ‘Sesame Street’, a popular US children’s television show, on an interactive playset that allows figurines of Bert and Ernie to come to life when captured by a smartphone. Volkswagen utilized AR to target a particular consumer segment. The company placed AR-interfaced billboards around Toronto and Vancouver, allowing anyone with an iPhone or an iPad tablet to view virtual beetles and their performance and stunts. The stunts were reminiscent of X Games performances, and the public locations have given the ads a sense of excitement. As one of the most exciting AR mobile marketing efforts till date, the campaign’s launch video generated over 100,000 views in just a few weeks, creating a lot of buzz for the company. Welcoming the holiday season, the world’s largest coffee shop chain Starbucks also used AR to create images on

decorated cups. A free mobile app download—available on both Android and Apple mobile devices—allows consumers to view 5 different animated shows on 5 different cups. The promotion created a lot of excitement in the tech world.

Future Prospects A new report by Juniper Research indicates that AR technology will generate $2 mn in 2012 and is expected to reach $714 mn annually by 2014. AR, in particular, can be very useful to the medical field due to its ability to present physicians with detailed information by interactive virtual displays. And the ESA expects that astronauts will also be using the system in the near future. In 2012 AR technology will be used for attention-grabbing stunts in the world of mobile marketing. However as more people buy smartphones and the technology becomes more nuanced, many analysts predict that the marketing campaigns will become increasingly sophisticated. Only time will tell what AR will do for mobile marketing, but the expert opinions indicate that the technology can be a big time game changer.

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Emerging Tech Dash 7

Wireless Wonder

It not only penetrates concrete and water but also consumes less power to transmit data Highlights ď Ž Operates at an unlicensed

spectrum of 433 MHz ISM band air interface ď Ž A complement to NFC, driven by a combination of sensing function with wireless transmission ď Ž Within a 2-10 kms radius, can keep a tab on the identity of an object/person using radio waves

ash 7 is an active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology which was initially designed for security and asset monitoring applications. But in the recent years, it has ingressed into several commercial applications across the world. It works on biometric technologies. Dash 7 is an advanced wireless sensor networking technology as it operates at an unlicensed spectrum of 433 MHz ISM band air interface. The 433.92 MHz gives it exemplary signal propagation characteristics. It is ideal for the wireless sensor networking applications since it cannot only penetrate concrete and water, but also has the ability to transmit/receive over very long ranges without requiring a large power draw from a battery. The low input current of typical tag configurations allows for battery powering on coin cell or thin film batteries for up to 10 years. A Dash 7 system of devices is inherently mobile or transitional. It is upload-centric, so devices do not need to be managed extensively by fixed infrastructure (ie, base stations). The only disadvantage of Dash 7 is that it cannot handle high-bandwidth data transfers.

Core Competencies Within 2-10 kms radius, it can keep a tab on the identity of an object or a person using radio waves. The adoption of Dash 7 is a win-win situation for all sectors of businesses, particularly for retail and mobile payment sector. Dash 7 will enable mobile payments, manufacturing and warehouse optimization, hazardous material monitoring, self-replicating light data networks, building access-in automotive/logistics, advanced location based services, ticketing, and more. Retailers can immensely benefit from the long distance mobile advertising and mobile coupons. Retailers such as BestBuy, Metro, Target, Tesco and Walmart are in the forefront of RFID adoption. These retailers are focused on improving the supply chain efficiency and making sure that the product is on the shelf when customers want to buy it with the help of sensors. Retailers can attract prospective customers by sending information about products, its price, color, origin, expiration, and so on with the help of RFID tags. Dash 7 will enable the mobile payment at drive-through windows. Dash 7 will assist logistics by tracking the whereabouts of shipping contain-

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ers, pallets, roll cages, trucks, rail cars, maritime vessels, and other supply chain assets, providing businesses with unprecedented visibility into their everyday operations. It is also used for monitoring the in-transit temperature and other environmental factors that can impact the integrity of sensitive products.

Complementing NFC Dash 7 is a complement to Near Field Communications (NFC), driven by a combination of sensing function with wireless transmission. It is an advanced wireless sensor networking technology which operates at unlicensed spectrum, 433 MHz ISM band air interface. It also provides low latency for tracking moving objects, small protocol stack, sensor and security support, and data transfer of up to 200 kbit/s. IMS Research, a market research firm has forecasted that NFC-enabled phones are expected to reach 26% in 2015 and it will be commercially deployed by 2012 in several markets. Therefore, as Dash 7 is a complement to NFC and has an edge over it; then what will stop Dash 7 from being a reality?

Emerging Tech BYOD

Is it Here to Stay? While we may wait-and-watch, BYOD is spreading like wild fire Highlights  Access to data anywhere,

anytime, and from any device is driving BYOD  It helps reduce capex  Data security is an issue

any organizations in India have started with the concept of mandatory ‘work from home’ for employees due to unexpected bulk orders from clients and insufficient office space. In such a scenario, the employees are allowed to use personal devices on the company’s network or company’s IT assets for personal use. Industry experts believe that enterprises have started allowing BYOD to reduce costs, make the most of their employees by offering them flexible working hours thus resulting in an increased work efficiency. It is also believed that many employers have implemented BYOD to shift their telecom cost to the employees. This unstoppable trend is likely to change the nature of the support which either corporate IT departments or outsourced suppliers are able to provide, as the requirement to support and maintain a plethora of devices, tablets, PDAs, laptops, and their associated applications might fundamentally change the existing ways of working.

Taking Responsibility The alternative is that the individuals take responsibility for the support and maintenance of their own devices and the base software on them, but it may not be feasible or a responsible thing to do, to place such a responsibility in the hands of the user. The education sector in India is also considered as one of the major areas for investments and many premium institutes are planning to provide a 21st century learning environment. By the use of BYOD, the students will be able to use their own devices to access the internet and collaborate with other students. These institutes will provide access to their wireless network through students’ personal devices (laptops, netbooks, tablets, smartphones, etc).

Challenges BYOD requires considerable technology investment in creating a virtualized environment and network infrastructure. It requires access to the network at all times to be productive and mixes up personal and corporate

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working which can have serious security implications. Also, it may lead to incompatibility issues and create complexities in managing the hardware and software support. Many companies are not so confident about the BYOD concept and have currently allowed the use of smartphones with adequate controls to minimize exposure. They want this technology to get mature and gain complete confidence of their clients without compromising on the organization’s security. According to experts, the level of security required for BYOD devices is not fully in place at present and the decision to go ahead will only be determined by the organization’s risk profile. The more the risk, the less likely that the management will be able to authorize the technologies that might expose the organization to an attack. With a little forward thinking and planning, BYOD-related challenges can be overcome. Despite these challenges, the trend for BYOD is growing at quite a pace and will continue to do so.

Emerging Tech Cat 7/7A

Next-wave Connectivity

It offers a redical departure from today’s over subscribed networks in which delays and high-transit latency are inherent Highlights  Backword compatible with Cat

5, Cat 6 cables

 Ideal for high computing

business ops and data centers  Expensive at present

oday’s world of digitization is being bombarded with advanced technologies which are speed and bandwidth hungry. Network infrastructure is a fundamental and critical component that extends maximum benefits of any technology. Networking is shifting towards real-time application access from just basic connectivity. Data centers, emerging convergence, highcomputing business/IT operations and top-of-the-rack switching technologies have changed the requirements for the underlying physical network. Speed and bandwidth are the key needs of network infrastructure. In this regard, Cat 7/7A in copper category is the next wave in infrastructure performance. Several cables go into a network and this is related to network’s topology, protocol, and size. Category 7 and augmented category 7A (Cat 7/7A) cable, a copper cable standard for ethernet and other inter-connect technologies have evolved. Cat 7/7A is a technology that allows sheath sharing and it enables multiple applications running on the same 4-pair

cable. As the categories build from 5e to 7, the speed at which data is transfered across the network wiring increases for advanced network applications. For example, while category 5e network wiring is rated to 100 MHz, standards compliant category 7 cables provide 700 MHz data transfer rates. Category 7A is defined at frequencies up to 1,000 MHz. Forty gigabit ethernet is possible at 50 m, and 100 G ethernet is possible at 15 m. It is backward compatible with traditional Cat 5 and Cat 6 ethernet cables. Cat 7 features even more strict specifications for cross-talk and system noise than Cat 6. To achieve this, shielding has been added for individual wire pairs and the cable as a whole. Besides the foil shield, the twisting of the pairs and number of turns per inch causes RF shielding and protects from cross talk.

Embracing Cat 7/7A Cat 7/7A is an ideal solution for data center/high computing business operations. Data centers demand non-blocking and predictable performance. Enterprise networks in the past

were designed for specific applications while new cloud designs in the data center can address a multitude of applications. Enterprises are using bandwidthintensive, internet-led applications such as VoIP, videoconferencing, visualization, cloud computing, etc. This is clearly a radical departure from today’s oversubscribed networks in which delays and high-transit latency are inherent. Therefore Cat 7/7A is a perfect solution as it provides 600/1,000 MHz data transfer rates, respectively. A Cyber Media Research report shows the data center services market is likely to increase at 23% to reach `11,800 crore in 2012. The third party data center services market, that makes up for 20% of the overall market, is slated to grow at 34% to touch `2,800 crore by 2012. Hence Cat 7/7a can play a pivotal role for all high-computing needs. Though it is expensive now, enterprises which have a planning of around 10 years justify the cost of a Cat7 deployment because it saves money vis-à-vis alternative cabling methods.

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Emerging Tech EV-DO Rev B

Unleashing the Potential The multiple capabilities of EV-DO Rev B are helping operators get more users Highlights  Offers data rate of 9.3 Mbps

compared to 800 Kbps on Rev A  Offers 65% increase in uplink  Indonesia’s Smart Telecom globally first to deploy EV-DO Rev B  In India, MTS deployed it first

V-DO Rev B is a multi-carrier air interface technology evolution of the Rev A specification which works simultaneously over multiple 1.25 MHz carriers. It maintains the capabilities of EV-DO Rev A with some significant enhancements. Rev A can allow user traffic to flow over only 1 carrier whereas Rev B allows flow on 3 carriers. Therefore it improves user data rates and transaction latencies, on both forward link and reverse link, in proportion to the number of carriers used, when serving the same number of subscribers as Rev A on the same number of carriers. EV-DO is basically a CDMA 2000 standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals for broadband internet access which works on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). It was initially deployed alongside a wireless carrier’s voice services with a bandwidth of 1.25 MHz. Since the origin of EV-DO, it has undergone 3 revisions—Revision 0, Revision A, and Revision B. EV-DO Rev B provides efficient spectrum utilization and delivers end-user performance superior to that of UMTS/HSxPA,

using only one quarter of the bandwidth. It provides higher rates per carrier up to 4.9 Mbit/s on the downlink per carrier and the peak rate will be 14.7 Mbit/s as it can be deployed on 2-3 carriers. Higher rates achieved by bundling multiple channels together enhance the user experience and enable new services such as high-definition video streaming. Latency is reduced because of the use of statistical multiplexing across channels. This enhances the experience for latency sensitive services such as gaming, video telephony, remote console sessions, and web browsing.

Rev B Boom Worldwide Sprint and Verizon have rolled out EV-DO Rev B technology. Smart Telecom in Bali is the world’s first network operator to deploy an EV-DO Rev B. In India, Sistema Shyam TeleServices (SSTL) is the first company to deploy EV-DO Rev B technology. This will greatly enhance the existing service speeds of mobile broadband for SSTL. Huawei and ZTE have committed to make Rev B a compliant hardware. ZTE Gecko is a global leader in CDMA technology. By March 2011, ZTE’s CDMA

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base station capacity raised up to 300 mn lines and the cumulative shipments of CDMA base stations have been more than 310,000. ZTE’s CDMA EV-DO Rev B have been deployed by 7 operators in China, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan, Romania, etc. In CTIA Wireless 2011, ZTE unveiled the first CDMA ultra-compact multi-carrier ‘ZTE Gecko’ base station. ZTE has established 70 EV-DO networks in more than 60 countries, including China, the United States, the Czech Republic, Poland, India, and Indonesia. Alcatel-Lucent is said to provide equipment for China Telecom’s CDMA/EV-DO Rev B network. EV DO Rev B will facilitate CDMA operators to increase their subscriber base. CDMA operators will have to compete with GSM operators who enjoy around 80% market share in India. Hence they ought to offer better user experience especially on data side. With the aid of EV DO Rev B, they can unleash the full potential of applications and services. EV DO Rev B enhances the spectrum efficiency to extend mobile talk-time by approximately 30%. At present, there are around 136 mn EV DO users worldwide.

Emerging Tech Internet of Things

IoT Unplugged Finally we have something that can help make real our dreams of smart homes, offices, streets, and cities Highlights  Affordability is an issue  Greater need of

standardization  Agriculture, healthcare & retail will be greatly benefited

he term Internet of Things (IoT) is the technology where ‘things’, particularly everyday objects such as home appliances, furnitures, clothes, vehicles, and more are readable (recognizable), locatable, addressable, and controllable via the internet. There are several applications of networked of things being used in sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, retail, transport, environment, supply chain management, infrastructure monitoring, etc.

Advantages While there are many interesting applications of networking physical objects, they still are in their initial phase and need to offer a strong value proposition to customers for their wide adoption and acceptance. Some of the benefits of the technology include improved performance; visibility and scalability of business process automation; providing better, more cost-effective service via a real-time highresolution capture; analysis of real-time product performance information; and creation of new and existing business

processes by enhancing efficiency, accuracy, mobility, and automation.

Emerging Trends The emerging trends in deployment of IoT based applications are:  Decrease in Size: Micro Electric Machines (MEMS) and nanoelectronics are making the sensors smaller and power efficient so that they can be used inside smaller devices and even living systems. Cisco, Atmel, the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS), and other technology providers and users framed ‘IP for Smart Objects’ (IPSO), formed an alliance and launched IPv6, one of the world’s smallest opensource protocols, which could enable every device—no matter how limited by power or memory—to have an internet protocol address, thereby promoting the IoT.  Mobile Phones as Data-capturing Devices: This trend focuses on extension of data capture systems on mobile phones. The advantage of mobile phone as a pervasive device, with the support for internet connectivity, will enable its wide application and acceptance like there are many mobile applications using camera to recognize 2D barcodes.

Hindrances The development of the IoT would, to a large extent, depend on the progress in machine-to-machine interfaces and protocols of electronic communication, embedded systems, wireless communication, radio frequency identification (RFID), sensors, etc, and each of the networked object needs to have an identity. Managing a globally integrated unified ID with mechanisms for naming, addressing, and discovery is a mighty task. While RFID is one of the sensors, there are numerous sensors in the market with different technologies, packages, and specifications and these are major contributors to the cost of the whole solution. Another major hindrance in the deployment of the technology is the requirement of sturdy smart devices in order to withstand any kind of harsh environment and harness energy from their surroundings. The issue of trust, privacy, and security too is of prime importance in the IoT, raising a concern regarding the ownership of data and ways of managing it dynamically.

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JUNE 2012 | VOICE&DATA | 41

Emerging Tech LBS

Security Guaranteed LBS as a technology will not only ensure national security, but will also give socio-economic benefits to both consumers and enterprises Highlights  In India, there are 4 players

that are active on the LBS front—Creativity Software, CommScope, Ericsson, and Polaris Software  Technologies used by the operators for LBS include cell ID, enhanced cell ID, LMU, GPS, and A-GPS solutions

s the mobile communications market grows, the available technologies and capabilities continue to evolve. Today’s mobile devices are enabled with a rich set of features. One of the most important features is the ability to use the wireless infrastructure of a cellular network to identify the location of any mobile device. Governments across the world have been using this technology for safeguarding their establishment both from internal as well as external threat.

Implementing and Defining LBS In order to implement LBS, the Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of India has come out with a new notification on May 31, 2011, which focuses on the amendment of the Unified Access Service License (UASL) agreement for security-related concerns for the expansion of telecom services in various zones of the country. Technologies used by the operators for LBS include cell ID, enhanced cell ID, LMU, GPS, and A-GPS solutions. Cell ID is the simplest and most common form of

location positioning and identifies which cell site or sector is currently serving the mobile device. The accuracy of cell ID location varies with the density of network cell sites deployment—greater density yields greater accuracy. Enhanced cell ID helps in determining the mobile location based upon timing advanced and network measurement reports on a cell sector.

Major Players In India, there are 4 players that are active on the LBS front—Creativity Software, CommScope, Ericsson, and Polaris Software. While Creativity Software uses predictive matching, Polaris Wireless opts for RF pattern matching, Ericsson uses fingerprinting, whereas CommScope uses multiple technologies. Creativity Software has completed 2 pilots—one for a major operator and second for a new entrant. The different regions covered during the pilot include South Mumbai, Andheri, Panvel, Pune, and Ludhiana with different terrains, including urban, sub-urban, and rural environment. In all the cases, the Creativity Software results conform to the DoT mandate till 2014 in terms of accuracy requirement.

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Polaris Wireless has tested its technology through blind trials in Bengaluru environment of which over 70% of calls were within 50 m and over 90% of calls were within 100 m (DoT mandate is 30% and 60%, respectively), proving that the company has best-in-class performance in urban environments. Their performance has not been impacted by the wireless device being indoors/outdoors. Recently, the company has tied up with CanvasM, a division of Tech Mahindra, to explore location opportunities in India.

Deploying LBS Technologies The LBS technologies have been deployed in many countries, thereby giving enough confidence to the operators that such an accuracy requirement can be met. Apart from meeting the DoT specifications, with respect to security-related concerns, LBS can also be used by the operators to launch location-enabled applications, which would help both enterprises and consumers. Operators can also do a quick launch of commercial services, thereby generating RoI for the company.

Emerging Tech Big Data

Taming the Elephant It is now time for cloud and big data to come together Highlights  IT, retail, BFSI and telecom are

main big data generators  Big data to propel data analytics market  A unique business segment is created to analyse big data

‘B

ig data’ refers to data sets whose size is beyond the ability of typical database software tools to capture, store, manage, and analyze. As we know, technology advances over time therefore the size of data sets that qualify as big data will also increase. It would vary as technology advances and also by sector, depending on the volume and velocity of the data sets. It can range from a few dozen terabytes to multiple petabytes. The ability to store, aggregate, and combine data and then use the results to perform deep analysis have become even more accessible. The discussion on big data is at a preliminary stage with CIOs and IT managers today, and the tempo is picking up real fast. The reason for this is that the CIOs are faced with enormous amount of important data sets and are turning to mine them for insights into business value. Also, most enterprises are contemplating to virtualize and move to the cloud at some point. All this requires a pre-determined plan of moving large data assets, securing them, and a plan to drive analytics. Verticals that have been traditionally

heavy consumer-centric and IT-savvy such as retail, BFSI and others such as oil & gas and healthcare, which process significant amounts of information, are turning to apply existing data for business insight.

Increase in Demand Another factor that will fuel the need for big data is the ever-increasing growth of digital data. A recent IDC-EMC study determined that India generated nearly 40,000 petabytes of data in 2010. It estimated that India’s share of digital information will grow 60 times by 2020, driven by the rollout of 3G/BWA networks, digitization of television networks, and increased technology adoption among individuals, SMBs, enterprises and in government services like the unique ID project, census, among others. Big data analysis can help retail enterprises, as it can improve the speed and scalability of a massively parallel data warehouse in cost-effective methods. Many government functions already have a recognizable ‘cloud plus big data’ function, with more coming along all the time. Another exciting prospect is the National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid)—imagine when it becomes operational in

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India, it will integrate the existing 21 databases with central and state government agencies and other organizations in the public and private sector such as banks, insurance companies, stock exchanges, airlines, railways, telecom service providers, chemical vendors, etc. Healthcare delivery has enormous potential to move towards harnessing enormous amounts of patient records and providing evidence-driven recommendations that not only change recommended protocols but shape overall healthcare policy. Before long, healthcare will undoubtedly be a ‘cloud plus big data’ industry.

Cloud Computing The most important driver for big data is cloud computing. In one sense, the move to cloud (whether private, public, or hybrid) sets the stage for big data. Various industry experts suggest that the time now is about cloud meeting big data. Cloud computing makes big data possible by providing an elastic pool of resources to handle the massive scale of big data. Through cloud computing, IT resources are more efficient and IT teams are more productive, freeing up resources to invest in big data.

CASE STUDY NABARD: Project Objective

•

NABARD has mooted the ambitious strategy for core banking solution implementation and transformation at the Co-operative banking sector viz. at the State Co-operative Banks & Central Co-operative Banks across the country. Out of 400+ such banks, so far 140 banks have expressed their willingness to participate in the project and signed the necessary Memorandum of Agreements (MoA) with NABARD. This vision and strategy would involve a major transformation of the current information technologies (IT) and a significant reengineering of the banks‘business processes.

• • •

DVB-S2/ACM

NABARD has invited bids from the system integrators to implement Core Banking Solution (CBS) along with some associated applications for the 140 SCBs / CCBs having 4584 branches under Application Service Provider (ASP) model. NABARD says, The Core Banking system would be deployed for networking at about 4700 sites for deployment of an integrated Core Banking Solution (“CBS”) covering branches, head offices, training centers, other back offices and any new branches opened during the contract period as part of the current IT outsourcing initiative. Since the Bank wants to implement CBS in any new branches opened during the next five years, the proposed CBS should be scalable to handle approximately 5000 branches, extension counters and service units. HUGHES PROPOSED SOLUTION Following points have been well taken care of in the process of designing the network solution: • A solution that best meets the project requirements. • A solution that is best optimized on technology and ease of implementation, operation and maintenance. • A solution that does not limit the users to its present capacity but can easily be upgraded.

HUGHES NETwORk - RIGHT fOR yOUR NETwORk • • •

IPoS Compliant, including high-speed DVB-S2 with ACM outroute Adaptive Inroute Selection (AIS) for maximum bandwidth efficiency Extensive suite of services

Lowest possible cost per bit

Efficient Transport

Maximize # of subscribers

Dynamic Load Balancing

Efficient distribution of traffic load

Adaptive Inroute Selection

High availability

Integrated Acceleration

Fast performance

Integrated Compression

Bandwidth efficiency

Integrated Subscriber Management

Bandwidth control

Back office Integration

CRM, Billing, Provisioning

wHy HUGHES • • • • • • • •

Incorporated in 1992, service operations for 15+ years Diversified service portfolio across Enterprise and Consumer 10th Consecutive year – Maintaining market share of more than 50% Over 30 Years Experience In Design And Development Of High Quality Cost-optimized Telecommunications Networks, Products And Services. Ranked “Top VSAT Operator” in India – Voice & Data Largest Shared hub service in Asia Pacific, servicing approx 40000 sites Full-Fledged In house Repair center Supporting approx 50,000 VSATs across 2,000 locations in India

HUGHES NETwORk - kEy DIffERENTIATORS •

PRODUCT PROPOSED We understand that the heart of the network is the technology that provides the best and reliable connectivity. Understanding the criticality of the backbone system of the network, we propose time and field proven HN 9200 series VSAT system from Hughes Network Systems U.S.A.

Field proven, cost-effective and scalable from a few to 50,000’s of terminals Integrated and robust network security with integrated outbound encryption and conditional access Full set of integrated applications including TCP acceleration, IP routing, and optional “pre-fetching” of HTTP content for even faster web throughput Service level control providing the ability to have multi-level QoS offerings

• • • • • • • •

Latest Technology – DVB-S2+ACM and AIS on IPoS, with most efficient coding LDPC. Bandwidth efficiency of almost 50% with high availability services. It conforms to the ETSI “Satellite Independent Service Access Point (SI-SAP)” standard. Governing the least overheads on Inroute as well as Outroute IPoS (IP over Satellite) - Global standard approved by TIA, ETSI, and ITU Min. MTTR with in-country repair centre IP header compression – 15-20% overall bandwidth reduction on Inbound and outbound Payload Compression – upto 90% compression on text QoS – Prioritizing traffic on outbound as well as Inbound VRRP – Link Redundancy. Hub redundancy - Shared HUB at Gurgaon and Hyderabad Operation of the largest Shared Hub installed base in the country and Asia.

overall analysis

History Repeats Itself

The Indian telecommunications industry in FY12 had nothing much to cheer about having burnt its fingers with 3G and the only bright spot being 4G emerging in the scene as a wiser opportunity Top 10 Players (FY 2011-12) FY 2011-12

FY 2010-11

Growth (in %)

Market Share%

Rank In (2010-11)

Nokia

11,925

12,929

-7.77

17.5

Samsung

9,000

5,720

57.34

13.2

Cisco

7,096

7,010

1.23

10.4

Wipro

7,044

5,752

22.46

10.3

Huawei

6,976

5,688

22.64

10.2

NSN

5,980

6,177

-3.19

8.8

Ericsson

5,844

6,173

-5.33

8.6

Tech Mahindra

5,321

5,056

5.24

7.8

TCS

5,171

4,437

16.54

7.6

Alcatel

3,786

3,010

25.78

5.6

New

Total

68,143

61,952

9.99

100.0

Rank

Company

V&D Estimates

t was 2011 déjà vu for the Indian telecommunications industry in FY12 and the erstwhile poster boy of Indian growth story offered us nothing more than a flashback of what happened in 2011. Same old story. The industry did not see much growth, lacked momentum, lagged in finalizing deals and the stakeholders wore a pale look throughout the year. As if the industry did nothing the entire year and was sitting idle. Yes, to a great extent it was sitting idle. The hype of 3G wave expected to sweep across the length and breadth of the country, remained only in the air. And the operators who had put all their flesh and blood during the auction to get spectrum and licenses, did not do anything significant to reach the masses and lacked substantial 3G offerings. They did

not expand their network as per the requirement, directly affecting the balance sheet of equipment manufacturers. Expectations of large scale orders from big operators simply remained as mere expectations throughout the year. If we look at the other side of the coin, we can’t even blame the operators singularly for the dismal performance of the Indian telecommunications industry. Freedom to jump to 4G straight from 2G perhaps was too much for the country and it made the industry confused and put the licensees in dilemma. The operators who hold licenses to offer both 3G and 4G are yet to decide where to put their money in. Wisely so, they know minting of the next phase of money is only possible with data and not voice anymore, and customers would anyway use voice—be it on 2G or 3G. Thus,

46 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

investment in BWA would be more wiser than in 3G. Perhaps that is why they are waiting to invest their (bankers’ and investors’ too) hard-earned money in the datacentric offerings ie, the BWA services. On the other hand, the announcement of a new telecom policy to be drafted that would replace the older version, warned and made the operators behave more wisely. They were not sure what the new policy would have in store, so they held back many orders, directly affecting the equipment vendors’ business. Not only the operators, but PSUs and enterprises too treaded very cautiously while floating tenders and new orders. Policy uncertainty, looking at the future and overlooking the present, and the buyers’ and sellers’ overall behavior almost killed the industry in 2012. The

overall analysis

Telecom Equipment Industry (FY 2011-12) Product Categories Enterprise Equipment

Revenue (in `crore) FY11-12

FY10-11

Growth

Voice Solutions

2,637

2,290

15.15

Network Integration

5,962

5,873

1.52

Router

2,970

3,251

-8.64

Switch

4,559

4,318

5.58

Structured Cabling

1,577

1,311

20.29

Audio Video Conferencing

391

337

16.02

WLAN

510

419

21.72

1,645

1,587

3.65

332

378

-12.17

Others

2,600

1,527

70.27

Total

23,183

21,291

8.89

Broadband

1,367

899

52.06

Transmission

3,825

4,896

-21.88

941

831

13.24

Network Storage Modem

Others include: NIC, Radio, VSAT and RAS

Carrier Equipment

Test & Measurement Managed Services

5,626

Telecom Turnkey

1,862

5,362

-65.27

Telecom Cable

1,422

1,299

9.47

698

670

4.18

Telecom Software

25,443

23,854

6.66

Wireless Infrastructure

10,930

18,374

-40.51

Others

3,219

2,100

53.29

Total

55,333

58,285

-5.06

31,215

33,031

-5.50

235

218

7.80

Tablet

1,962

231

749.35

Data Card

1,260

1,077

16.99

34,672

34,557

0.33

113,188

114,133

-0.83

Power Management

Others Include: Telecom Tower, Wireline Switch, Submarine Switch, WiMax and OSS/BSS

User Device Handsets Fixed Phone

Total Grand Total

48 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

overall analysis

wireless infrastructure

Transmission

Test & Measurement

Total Market Size: `10,930 crore (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `3,825 crore (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `941 crore (FY 2011-12)

22% Alcatel Lucent 29.7% Ericsson

28.9% NSN

19% ECI Telecom

18% Others

36.6% Agilent 14.5% Spirent

10.8% Rohde & Schwarz

18% Huawei

25.8% Huawei

24.5% Others

9% Ericsson

8.9% ZTE

5% NSN 9% Tejas Network

6.7% Alcatel Lucent

3% Toshniwal 3.8% Aishwarya 6.8% JDSU

Telecom Turnkey

managed services

Wireline Broadband

Total Market Size: `1,862 crore (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `5,626 crore (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `1,367 crore (FY 2011-12)

38.13% Shyam Telecom

37.4% NSN

26.85% TCIL

16.6% Alcatel Lucent

4.4% Nutek

4.83% Others

48.43% ZTE

17.92% Huawei

10.85% HFCL

4.3% UTL

24.9% Ericsson

17.4% Huawei

12.44% 14.7% Ericsson Alcatel Lucent

7.95% ITI 3.6% ZTE

3.58% NSN

2.69% GTL

2.93% UT Starcom

Telecom cables

Power Management

Total Market Size: `1,422 crore (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `698 crore (FY 2011-12) 49.71% Delta

56.5% Sterlite

20.75% Others

19.91% Emerson

12% Aksh OptiďŹ bre 10.4% 7.2% Finolex Vindhya Telelinks 7% RPG Cables 5.1% Birla Ericsson 1.8% Paramount Cables

12.18% Eltek Valere

7.88% Acme

Indian telecom market could generate revenues of `113,188 crore in FY12 compared to `114,133 crore a year ago dragging it back some 0.83%. The industry was anticipating a slow growth but never a negative one. The biggest surprise came from the Indian mobile phone business. Couple of years back there were around 200 handset brands ruling the Indian market but 2012 saw that number come down drastically and the shelves were filled with not more than 12-15 mobile phone brands including the global players. The year 2012 saw a vanishing act from the handset vendors. A couple of global play-

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JUNE 2012 | VOICE&DATA | 49

overall analysis

Telecom software

Network Integration

routers

Total Market Size: `25,443 crore (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `5,962 crore (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `2,970 crore (FY 2011-12)

20.9% Tech Mahindra

26.35% Wipro Infotech

20.3% TCS

17.5% Others

33.71% Others

60.44% Cisco

18.37% HCL Infosystems

18.5% Wipro

16.67% Juniper

18.43% Datacraft

13.5% Infosys 7.1% HCL Tech

10.1% Alcatel-Lucent

3.14% Tulip

5.72% Huawei

2.1% Sasken

7.07% Others

switches

Voice Solutions

wlan

Total Market Size: `4,559 crore (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `2,637 crore (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `510 crore (FY 2011-12)

79.51% Cisco

23% Cisco

24% Avaya

37.1% Cisco

22% Alcatel-Lucent

1.75% Avaya

4% Aastra

1.58% D-Link 0.94% Dax 4.28% Others

7% Panasonic 2% Coral telecom

3% Matrix Comsec

3% Others

Structured Cabling

Audio-video Conferencing

Total Market Size: `1,577 crore (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `391 crore (FY 2011-12) 49% Polycom

19.7% Commscope 11.8% Digilink by Schneider

30% Cisco

9.9% Molex 6.6% R&M 4.4% Panduit 9.4% Others

16.1% Ruckus Wireless

11% Siemens

11.93% HP

29.8% TE Connectivity

24.1% Others

4.6% D-Link

9% Lifesize

3.8% Belden

6% Radvision 6% Others

50 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

9.4% Aruba Networks 8.2% D-Link 5.1% Netgear

ers like LG and Motorola are almost dead names, and Sony Ericsson is at the verge of extinction. BlackBerry maker RIM is struggling hard, locally and globally, and many homegrown handset makers simply vanished from the arena. The handset industry just generated `31,215 crore in revenues in 2012 compared to `33,031 crore in 2011â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a dip of 5.5%. Among the brands, Samsung, HTC and Indian made Karbonn Mobiles saved the face. However the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behavior is changing constantly with the change in new technologies and products coming into the market. Tablet as a device was new to India in 2011 but the last fiscal saw Indian consumers embracing the product with

overall analysis

Network Storage

Handsets

Total Market Size: `1,645 crore (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `31,215 crore (FY 2011-12)

23.4% IBM

25.5% EMC

38.2% Nokia 25.3% Samsung

11.1% HP 9.8% NetApp

2.5% Spice

7.3% Symantec

2.4% 2.5% Huawei LG

8.2% HDS

7.1% Oracle

1.3% Sony

4.5% Others

3.0% HTC

2.1% G'Five

1.4% Maxx

3.6% Dell

4% Others

6.3% Micromax 4.7% Blackberry 4.3% Karbonn

1.6% Lava

Data Card

Modem

Total Market Size: `1,260 crore (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `332 crore (FY 2011-12)

55% Huawei

52% Atrie Tech

36% ZTE

21% Beetel Teletech

7% Micromax

13% D-Link

1% Teracom

14% Others

1% Others

Fixed Phones

Tablets

Total Market Size: `235 crore (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `1,962 crore (FY 2011-12) 56.52% Samsung

50.6% Beetel Teletech

21.8% National Panasonic

11.5% Others

12.84% Others

7.2% Siemens 5.5% BPL Telecom 3.4% ITI 52 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

22.53% Apple

open arms allowing it to grow at close to 750%. From a mere `231 crore in 2011, it grew to `1,962 crore in 2012. Overall, the user device segment that includes mobile phones, data cards, fixed phones and tablets grew marginally at 0.33% to register `34,672 crore in 2012 from `34,557 crore in 2011. The carrier equipment industry too saw a dip in business. It generated revenues of `55,333 crore in FY12 plunging 5.06% from `58,285 crore in 2011. The business units that are directly related to wireless industry suffered the most. Transmission, telecom turnkey, and wireless infrastructure segments fell 21.88%, 65.27%, and 40.51% respectively. The announcement of NTP 2011 and cancellations of 122 licenses by the apex court played the spoilsport for these industries. Commendable is the growth of wireline broadband industry—it grew more than 52% to bring in `1,367 crore to the industry in 2012 from `899 crore in 2011. Indian consumers, it seems, have started realizing the value of the internet and perhaps started believing that proliferation of broadband can infact help India increase its GDP to some 10%. From the three industry segments that VOICE&DATA does a survey every year—carrier equipment, enterprise equipment, and user devices—only the enterprise equipment industry has something to cheer about. The segment grew 8.89% to register `23,183 crore in FY12 compared to `21,291 crore in FY11. In this category, only the modem and switch industry showed a negative growth. This is because enterprises demanded futuristic and multi-tasking devices from the vendors, the devices that can act as switches, routers, and modems. And the manufacturers have started obliging happily. Now as the new telecom policy is in place, 4G on LTE is the talk of the industry, enterprises’ and consumers’ appetite is growing for more and more data, and with consolidation becoming the norm of the industry, the Indian telecommunication space, it seems, is slated for a brighter picture in the next fiscal. Gyana Ranjan Swain gyanas@cybermedia.co.in

carrier

Equipment Wireless.......................................................................................................................... 56 Broadband..................................................................................................................... 60 Managed Services...................................................................................................... 64 Transmission .............................................................................................................. 68 T&M.................................................................................................................................... 70 Telecom Turnkey........................................................................................................ 80 Telecom Tower............................................................................................................ 82 OSS/BSS............................................................................................................................ 86 Telecom Cables........................................................................................................... 88 Power Management................................................................................................... 90 Telecom Software..................................................................................................... 93

wireless infrastructure

Dismal Performance

Slow pick up of 3G and lack of 4G ecosystem led to the downfall

he wireless infrastructure segment in FY12 was dependent on 2G and 3G as one could not see large scale deployment of 4G network. In case of 2G, it was more of capacity expansion in B and C class circles whereas in case of 3G there was a lot of hope initially which died down as network was unable to deliver due to lack of proper backbone infrastructure. In case of 4G, lack of proper ecosystem delayed things and it is expected that large scale deployment will happen only in 2013, once operators launch their networks in couple of cities in this fiscal. All the vendors be it Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, NSN, and ZTE have focused on 2G and 3G. In 2G, the focus is on

value added services whereas in 3G, the focus is on improving consumer’s experience. Focus is also on improving backbone and access network so that consumer can get better experience.

2G/3G Deals Alcatel-Lucent has in its kitty—CDMA network of RCom and Tata, GSM network of Uninor, BSNL’s GSM network for the western region, and Mumbai network of MTNL. In the last fiscal, Alcatel-Lucent bagged an order of over `300 crore from Indian Air Force to deploy WCDMA based wireless network covering many air force stations across India through HCL. This is a captive 3G mobile network and will offer a lot of value added services to Indian Air

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Force. Once the network is completed, it is planned to be integrated with Indian Air Force network. The company is managing GSM, CDMA, and backbone network of RCom. This is also the largest multi-vendor and multi-technology managed services footprint in the country. The company has also added Uninor for managed services and is looking after 8 circles. Alcatel-Lucent is managing Bharti airtel’s enterprise network based on fixed WiMax technology. Recently, the company has bagged IN (intelligent network) deal for BSNL to be deployed in northern and eastern region. The company has already been managing BSNL’s IN deal for the western region.

Highlights  Indian operators are not ready for 3G and 4G so focus was on setting    

up IP and backbone network Big opportunities in 3G for FY13 with respect to capacity expansion in existing cities and capacity planning in new cities Opportunities opening up for 4G as operators deployed small pilot networks and are now planning large commercial networks LBS is a big opportunity and will benefit companies like Ericsson, CommScope, Polaris Wireless, and Creativity Software Operators are focusing on improving customer experience with respect to different platforms so focus is on value additions

Apart from this, the company bagged IP deal with Bharti airtel. The IP win helps in creating access to network based on Carrier Ethernet technology (CEN) whereby delivering faster mobile broadband speed to its customers. The company has also bagged a major EV-DO expansion deal with one of the largest operators. On 3G, Ericsson has ongoing deals with Vodafone, Bharti airtel, Idea, and Aircel and on 2G, the company has ongoing deals with Vodafone, Bharti airtel, Idea, BSNL, Aircel, Uninor, Etisalat, and others. In FY12, Ericsson signed managed services agreement with Idea for another 3 years making it the largest managed services partner for Idea. The contract is valid for 5 circles (Mumbai, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, North East, and Assam) and Ericsson will be responsible for managing network and field operations, operation and maintenance activities for 2G and 3G sites, network design and planning, network performance improvement, and program management for infrastructure. Ericsson also signed up deals with Bharti airtel across 15 circles for 5 years. Under this new multi-vendor and multitechnology managed services agreement, Ericsson will operate, maintain, and provide services. In addition to the standard portfolio of managed services, Ericsson will also take responsibility for the intelligent network that manages Bharti airtel’s prepaid customer base.

The 15 telecom circles to be serviced by Bharti airtel include: Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, UP(W), UP(E), Rajasthan, North East, Assam, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, and Kerala. Sistema Shyam Teleservices has extended its managed services contract with Ericsson and added 4 new CDMA circles (Uttar Pradesh (E), Uttar Pradesh (W), Gujarat, and Rajasthan). The agreement also includes management of fiber transport and wireline networks in Rajasthan. In September 2010, Ericsson has been

Market Share

Total Market Size: `10,930 crore

29.7% Ericsson

28.9% NSN

25.8% Huawei

8.9% ZTE 6.7% Alcatel Lucent

V&D Estimates

Operators can implement costeffective location based solutions (LBS) to meet security guidelines and deploy commercial services to generate revenue for operators managing multi-vendor wireless networks of Delhi and Haryana circle only. Under the 3-year agreement, Ericsson will be responsible for network optimization, operations, and maintenance including field operations and 24/7 network service assurance, fulfillment of network service provisioning, customer problem management, and spare parts management. With Ericsson’s LBS solution, Aircel subscribers can get better localized information through Ericsson’s mobile positioning system (MPS) for its 2G and 3G subscribers. Aircel users can now get real-time tracking, navigating information, and services while on the move. This is Ericsson India’s first contract managing the location based services platform in a multi-vendor core network environment. As part of this 3-year contract for supply and support, Ericsson will supply its Mobile Positioning Center (GMPC and SMPC). In 3G, Huawei has ongoing contracts with Bharti, Idea, Tata DOCOMO, RCom, Aircel, BSNL, and MTNL and in 2G, the company has ongoing contracts with Idea, Tata, RCom, Aircel, BSNL, and MTNL and majority of new operators like Videocon, MTS, Uninor, Etisalat, Loop, and STel. In both these cases, the focus was on capacity expansion or closing covering gaps. The cancellation of licenses by the Supreme Court will make a big dent in Huawei’s revenues for FY13, as the company has

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wireless infrastructure

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11*

Ericsson

3,244

5,350

-39

NSN

3,160

5,410

-42

Huawei

2822

3,437

-18

ZTE

970

2,790

-65

Alcatel-Lucent

734

1,387

-47

10,930

18,374

-41

Total

* figure includes managed services revenue

speed rate as high as 4.9 Mbps in single frequency carrier, and 14.7 Mbps in 3 frequency carriers bundle. SSTL currently provides high speed mobile broadband services in over 150 towns across India and one has to see in how many cities EV-DO Rev B Phase 2 is deployed. The company has successfully built and deployed an advanced VAS platform for Vodafone in India. With the completion of the platform, Vodafone customers can avail the Vodafone Newswrap, a mobile newspaper service.

V&D Estimates

4G Deals a large number of new operator circles under its belt which will be affected due to cancellation. NSN has a strong base in 2G as it has ongoing deals with Bharti airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, Videocon, and Tata and for 2G it has ongoing deals with Bharti airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, and Tata. NSN also leads packet core market as it handles data traffic for 250 mn subscribers. The company has implemented intelligent mobile packet core solutions for Bharti airtel, Datacom, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, and Uninor. The solution has helped operators in reducing total cost of ownership, maximizing revenue opportunities, and addressing growing bandwidth requirements. The company has implemented customer experience management (CEM) for Bharti airtel for optimizing and enriching user experience. For Vodafone, the company has implemented unified billing and charging solutions. Keeping in view the broadband focus, NSN acquired majority of wireless network infrastructure assets of Motorola solutions in April 2011 and expanded its operations by adding new products and services. With Motorola’s acquisition, the company is now also providing CPE equipment. On managed services, the company extended its contract in the fiscal with Bharti airtel for 5 years in 8 circles. Under the contract, NSN will manage and maintain Bharti airtel’s 3G and GSM networks as well as iWAN (internet Wireless Access Network), the operator’s

enterprise broadband service. ZTE has ongoing 2G deals with Idea, Aircel, Etisalat, and Tata and on 3G, the company has ongoing deals with Reliance and Aircel. In the last fiscal, ZTE won the world’s first CDMA EV-DO Rev B Phase 2 commercial contract from Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL). The company has also won CDMA expansion contracts and EV-DO upgrade contracts for 10 circles of SSTL. The EV-DO Rev B Phase 2 commercial launch will commence from Rajasthan. Compared to EV-DO Rev B Phase 1, the Phase 2 technology can further enhance the BTS cell capacity, spectrum efficiency and peak rate, achieving high

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 20,000

-41%

10,000 10,930

18,374

2011-12

2010-11

58 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

V&D Estimates

On TD-LTE, Ericsson was the first to close deal with Augere to offer end-to-end TDLTE solution including managed services for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh for 3 years. As per the partnership, Ericsson will plan, design, build, operate, maintain, and provide spare parts management for the 4G network in 14 cities. The contract includes the supply, installation, and commissioning of the network but as per the latest update the company had stopped all operational activities in India. Bharti airtel has selected ZTE, Huawei, and NSN for Kolkata, Karnataka, and Maharashtra circles. ZTE has been selected to plan, design, supply, and deploy 4G network in Kolkata. The launch of broadband services in Kolkata was the first 4G launch in India and it allows Bharti airtel subscribers to experience high-speed wireless internet access that can support bandwidth intensive applications, support video streaming and high-definition video conferencing. Huawei opened its TD-LTE account by signing deals with Bharti airtel for Karnataka circle where the company is planning, designing, supplying, and deploying TD-LTE solutions. NSN has opened its account by bagging Bharti’s network in Maharashtra. This is considered to be the biggest deal as it covers one of the largest states. In case of Bharti, all players will provide network design, integration, commissioning, optimization services, and full set of care services including hardware, software, and competence development services. On the other hand, Alcatel-Lucent has formed a JV with Reliance Industries to

provide technology consultancy helping Reliance Industries to deploy pan-India broadband wireless access network in a holistic way. It is expected that Reliance Industries will start services by the end of 2012 and is in active discussion with vendor community for wireless equipment deals in this fiscal.

Manufacturing Facility In the last fiscal both NSN and Ericsson were on an expansion mode. NSN expanded its Chennai manufacturing facility from 35,000 to 55,000 sq m and also increased its product lines to 33. The expansion helped NSN to export approximately 37% of the facility’s production across Asia Pacific. It has also enabled the company to manufacture and distribute new multi radio and LTE products (GSM and LTE-ready 3G base stations and its FlexiPacket radio). Ericsson’s manufacturing facility at Kukas in Jaipur, Rajasthan is geared to supply 2G, 3G, and 4G equipment and manages

production lines providing equipment for radio access network, core network, transmission solutions, and modules. Early last year, another SMT line was added to increase the production capacity. Ericsson produces the multi-standard radio base station RBS6000, an energy efficient compact site solution that supports all 3 technologies—2G GSM/EDGE, 3G WCDMA/HSPA, and 4G TD-LTE in a single package and the MSC server blade cluster that drastically boosts the capacity of the network and evolves it into an IP network.

Future Opportunities Operators can implement cost-effective location based solutions (LBS) to meet security guidelines and deploy commercial services to generate revenue for operators. LBS is a big opportunity and if implemented in future will benefit companies like Ericsson, CommScope, Polaris Wireless, and Creativity Software. Presently, the operators have undertaken trials and depending upon DoT’s new

notification will deploy LBS. LBS can also be used by the operators to launch location enabled applications which would help both enterprise and consumers in the long run. The fiscal will see big opportunities in 3G with respect to capacity expansion in existing cities and new capacity planning in new cities once the operators make their backbone network data ready. Even on 4G there is a big opportunity as operators will move from pilot deployment to commercial deployment. With respect to 4G, ecosystem readiness will be the key for having large scale deployments. Focus is also on improving customer experience with respect to different platforms. Also, smartphones are driving exponential growth in mobile data traffic which is driving the need for a convergent network of macro and small cell base stations and Wi-Fi offload. Pravin Prashant pravinp@cybermedia.co.in

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Wireline Broadband

Sidelined by Wireless Wireless and wireline broadband should play ‘cooperative’ games rather than ‘competitive’ in providing broadband in the country

Highlights  Mobility driving growth  Connectivity on the move is   



he Indian broadband scenario appears to be getting more and more dreary with every passing year considering its vast potential. Though it is growing at a substantial rate in metros and tier-1 cities, the other cities and rural areas have so far been deprived of the success story. In total, the country has not even reached a broadband subscriber base of 15 mn by end of March 2012 from a potential billion plus user base. With a market of 1.2 bn population, more than 200 active broadband service providers, around 15 telecom operators, and with a target of reaching 175 mn by 2017, the country is not moving at the required pace. That was evident in the last fiscal too. India has consistently been missing the bus without fail.

Market Share

Total Market Size: `1,367 crore

48.43% ZTE

17.92% Huawei 12.44% 14.7% Ericsson Alcatel Lucent

3.58% NSN 2.93% UT Starcom

60 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

V&D Estimates

rising Better coverage and reach is in demand Affordability is key differentiator Higher downloading speeds, moderately faster uploading speeds is the requirement Additional functionalities like entertainment applications, cloud services, etc are being offered by the vendors today

Market Dynamics It has been estimated that internet proliferation can help India increase its GDP to 5 to 10%, but the irony is that the country stands at 14th position in a recent AT Kearney’s broadband readiness index for Asia Pacific. The broadband infrastructure expansion actions of the operators have not been so enthusiastic in the past and last year too did not give any amusing indications. The 4 technologies used by ISPs to deliver broadband in India are DSL, fiber (FTTH, FTTC, VDSL), cable, etc. The newer segments such as fiber have started picking up. Last year, Beam fiber launched 10 Mbps speed on fiber in Hyderabad and Act Broadband has launched with 5 Mbps speed in Bengaluru. The demand that they are witnessing shows positive signs for fiber growth in India. BSNL has started

Wireline Broadband

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

ZTE

662

1,126

Huawei

245

444

Alcatel Lucent

201

150

Ericsson

170

253

-33

NSN

217

-77

UT Starcom

180

-78

1,367

899

Total

V&D Estimates

FTTH service in selected cities like Jaipur, while MTNL has also started FTTH service in selected circles of Mumbai and Delhi. Though DSL has so far remained the de facto choice for fixed broadband, fiber, cable, but others also saw good amount of traction in the last fiscal. With this, the demand for various kind of equipments and CPEs namely DSL modems and DSLAM’s for DSL technology; cable modems and CMTS for cable technology (hybrid fiber co-axial); OLT, ONT’s, PON (GEPON/GPON, EPON), STM’s, WDM’s for optic fiber technology; and Antenna’s and routers for WiMax and Wi-Fi technology are on the rise. While the largest demand for equipment remained on DSLAM equipments, new categories like DWDM’s STM 64’s and GEPON picked up due to FTTH technology, increased bandwidth requirements for use cases such as gaming, VoIP, IPTV, etc. However broadband on wireless access is growing at a faster rate. The launch of 3G and 4G has been fueling the mobile broadband growth and it is estimated to have reached close to 10 mn user base by end of March 2012. It has been contested that high-speed 4G and LTE wireless services can provide an excellent solution for getting broadband to rural and hard-to-reach areas that have been left behind in the broadband revolution. And that is what is being approved by various broadband infrastructure players in the past couple of years. NSN’s sell off of its wireline broadband assets to ADTRAN last year indicates its move towards wireless technology. Similarly, Ericsson has shifted

its focus towards wireless technology, Alcatel-Lucent is moving towards cloud and Motorola’s wireline broadband business is at all time low. The only players who seemed to be more upbeat about wireline broadband are the Chinese players like Huawei and ZTE. ZTE has entered into a strategic partnership with BSNL to deploy ultra highspeed ADSL2+ and next-generation VDSL2+ broadband devices across BSNL’s network in 15 circles. This deployment will expand the reach and quality of BSNL’s fixed network broadband services across the country and address the requirements of future multimedia broadband services there. ZTE has already deployed over 3 million subscriber broadband units for BSNL. Eighty percent of the networks equipped with

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 1,500

52%

750 1,367

899

2011-12

2010-11

62 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

V&D Estimates

these units utilize ADSL2+, with the remaining 20 percent using VDSL2+. Combined with this project, ZTE will command 40 to 45 percent of BSNL’s DSL market share. Radius Infratel, India’s leading fixed broadband infrastructure provider, is currently aiming to connect homes with Fiber to the Home (FTTH) over the next three years. This will enable users to access a whole host of high bandwidth applications from different telecom companies. The Neutral Access Network Operation (NANO) concept was enabled by Ericsson’s Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) EDA product solution and passive fiber portfolio. The NANO concept is operator and service-agnostic, allowing various operators to deliver bandwidth-rich applications like IPTV and multimedia content. Radius Infratel and Ericsson demonstrated the potential of the FTTH project at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Village. The pilot supported the communication needs of 8,000 dignitaries, athletes and team officials staying in the village, which was spread over an area of 64 hectares.

The Future India is the next country after China trying to boost broadband adoption in the AsiaPacific with a central government aim to achieve 175 mn broadband subscribers by 2017. Although the target seems aggressive, the ongoing cable digitalization process, coupled with initiatives such as e-government services in banking, education, and healthcare, will definitely drive broadband uptake in India. But factors such as cost of connect, lack of a national broadband infrastructure, and content in vernacular languages are being proved as major growth impeders for the nation. However for the foreseeable future, assuming that wireless and wireline broadband will co-exist and play cooperative games—rather than competitive—in providing broadband in the country. And even if wireless networks can’t fully offer the quality of experience of cable or DSL services, they offer a viable way for rural India to relatively quickly jump-start economic growth. Ritu Singh ritus@cybermedia.co.in

CASE STUDY

NABARD: Project Objective

•

NABARD has mooted the ambitious strategy for core banking solution implementation and transformation at the Co-operative banking sector viz. at the State Co-operative Banks & Central Cooperative Banks across the country. Out of 400+ such banks, so far 140 banks have expressed their willingness to participate in the project and signed the necessary Memorandum of Agreements (MoA) with NABARD. This vision and strategy would involve a major transformation of the current information technologies (IT) and a significant reengineering of the banks‘business processes.

• • •

DVB-S2/ACM

Lowest possible cost per bit

Efficient Transport

Maximize # of subscribers

Dynamic Load Balancing

Efficient distribution of traffic load

Adaptive Inroute Selection

High availability

Integrated Acceleration

Fast performance

Integrated Compression

Bandwidth efficiency

Integrated Subscriber Management

Bandwidth control

Back office Integration

CRM, Billing, Provisioning

wHy HUGHES • • • •

HUGHES PROPOSED SOLUTION Following points have been well taken care of in the process of designing the network solution:

• •

• • A solution that best meets the project requirements. • A solution that is best optimized on technology and ease of • implementation, operation and maintenance. • A solution that does not limit the users to its present capacity but can easily be upgraded. HUGHES NETwORk - kEy DIffERENTIATORS PRODUCT PROPOSED We understand that the heart of the network is the technology that provides the best and reliable connectivity. Understanding the criticality of the backbone system of the network, we propose time and field proven HN 9200 series VSAT system from Hughes Network Systems U.S.A. HUGHES NETwORk - RIGHT fOR yOUR NETwORk • • •

IPoS Compliant, including high-speed DVB-S2 with ACM outroute Adaptive Inroute Selection (AIS) for maximum bandwidth efficiency Extensive suite of services

•

• • • • • • • •

Managed Services

Moving in Full Swing Multi-vendor and multi-technology complexities are forcing the operators to move towards managed services

anaged services started in India in 2004 when Bharti airtel signed a network contract deal with Ericsson and since then we have traveled a long way. Initially, vendors were given commissioning of wireless networks but with increased complexity and multi-vendor network capability, networks are becoming complex. Thus, there is an increasing demand for managed services. For example, for both 3G and 4G, the vendors are awarded a managed services contract on day one itself. Managed services providers can offer services such as alerts, security, patch management, data backup and recovery for different client devices: Desktops, notebooks, servers, storage systems, networks and applications. Offloading routine infrastructure management to

Market Share

Total Market Size: `5,626 crore

37.4% NSN

24.9% Ericsson

16.6% Alcatel Lucent

17.4% Huawei

3.6% ZTE

64 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

V&D Estimates

an experienced managed services professional lets you concentrate on running your business, with fewer interruptions due to IT issues. Managed services providers usually price their services on a subscription basis. Depending on the services they provide, pricing is usually based on the number of devices, with different packages priced at different levels. Some provide customer support onsite when required. Basic services often start with a monitoring service, which notifies you of problems, which you resolve on your own. At the upper end of the spectrum, service providers offer fully managed services that cover everything from alerts through problem resolution. Presently, the vendors have comprehensive managed services offerings which include: Designing, building, operating,

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Managed Services

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore) FY 11-12

Ericsson

1,402

NSN

2,106

Huawei

979

Alcatel-Lucent

934

ZTE

205

Total

5,626 V&D Estimates

and managing day-to-day operations of the customer’s network, including end-user services and business-support systems, to hosting service-layer solutions and providing network coverage and capacity on demand. In India, all wireless infrastructure vendors provide managed services and what differentiates one from the other is not the infrastructure but the tools and processes vendors use to reduce time taken to solve the problem. Managed services is being provided by all vendors, be it Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, NSN, Ericsson, and ZTE. AlcatelLucent manages RCom’s GSM, CDMA, and backbone network. This is also the largest multi-vendor, multi-technology managed services footprint in the country. In the fiscal, the company has added Uninor’s GSM operations for managed services and is presently looking after 8 circles. The company is also managing airtel enterprise network based on fixed WiMax technology. All this network is managed by world-class GNOC or RDC (regional delivery center) located in Bengaluru. This RDC manages several global and Indian operators’ networks through standardized tools and processes.

Signing the Deals 2011 holds great significance with Ericsson as it signed key deals with Bharti, Aircel, SSTL, and Idea. Ericsson has signed managed services agreement with Idea for another 3 years. The contract is valid for 5 circles (Mumbai, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, North East, and Assam) and Ericsson will be responsible for

managing network and field operations, operation and maintenance activities for 2G and 3G sites, network design and planning, network performance improvement, and program management for infrastructure. Ericsson has also signed up with Bharti airtel across 15 circles for 5 years. In addition to the standard portfolio of managed services, Ericsson will also take responsibility for the intelligent network that manages Bharti airtel’s prepaid customer base. Augere has selected Ericsson to offer end-to-end TD-LTE solutions including managed services for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh under ZOOSH brand. The partnership is for 14 cities and is valid for 3 years. Sistema Shyam Teleservices has extended its managed services contract with Ericsson and added 4 new CDMA circles for 3 years. The agreement also includes management of fiber transport and wireline networks in Rajasthan. Huawei does managed services for Tata, Aircel, Uninor, and Idea. To give a big boost to managed services, Huawei opened its first GNOC (Global Network Operations Center) outside of China in Bengaluru. The GNOC complements existing Network Operation Center (NOC) located in New Delhi. The center will help in providing professional services such as network design, customer support, network optimization, systems integration, and network transformation for both incountry and off-shore operators. NSN has done pretty well on managed services and has also fared well where operators are looking for managed services partner with multi-vendor capabilities. On managed services, the company extended its contract with Bharti airtel for 5 years in 8 circles. Under the contract, NSN will manage and maintain Bharti airtel’s 3G and GSM networks as well as iWAN (internet Wireless Access Network), the operator’s enterprise broadband service. The company has managed services agreement for 7 operators—Bharti, Idea, Aircel, Vodafone, Tata, Uninor, and others. ZTE has ongoing 2G deals with Idea, Aircel, Etisalat, and Tata and on 3G, the

66 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Highlights  Expansion of 3G networks and

rollout of 4G networks is driving demand for managed services  With Trai laying a lot of emphasis on green energy, the operators need to focus on energy management in a big way through managed services

company has ongoing deals with Reliance and Aircel. The company has been providing managed services to Tata Teleservices, Aircel, Sistema Shyam, and STel. ZTE’s GNOC has been operational in Gurgaon and helps operators’ manage their operations.

Future Play With networks becoming complex, operators are opting for managed services model to reduce opex, capex, and improving end-user experience. Service providers are also looking at innovative delivery models as there is a shift from network-centric approach to servicecentric approach. Even there is a shift from traditional services model to focus on end-customer experience. Expansion of 3G networks and rollout of 4G networks is driving demand for managed services. Managed services allow operators expertise in technology and a clear cost structure through which they can enhance value and reduce network operating costs. All this saving results in investment in innovation, sales, and customer management. So, in high growth markets, it helps in handling rapidly growing customer base whereas in mature markets it helps in reducing churn. With Trai laying a lot of emphasis on green energy, the operators need to focus on energy management in a big way through managed services. And lastly, we will also see active sharing being provided through managed services but this is still a far fetched dream. Pravin Prashant pravinp@cybermedia.co.in

Transmission

Sliding Down Slow adoption of 3G and moderate growth in 2G coupled with political uncertainties resulted in the downfall Highlights  Industry shwon negative growth  Slow adoption of 3G, moderate

growth in 2G affected the industry  Large scale public sector orders missing  Operators’ reluctant investment on 3G network expansion hampered the growth  All major companies show a decline in revenue

he Indian transmission industry has shown negative growth, thanks to 2G license cancellation coupled with political uncertainties. Slow adoption of 3G along with moderate growth in 2G has also led to this decline which has resulted in large operators holding back on their planned capex investments. The sector also did not see any large scale public sector tender. The Supreme Court judgment on cancellation of 122 licenses had an adverse impact on the capex as lot of bandwidth was freed up with the shutting of shops and lot of uncertainty in the market. So, operators were more cautious when it comes to fresh capital outlays for transmission deals—be it network upgrades or for new rollouts and were deferring their decision for purchase of equipment.

Market Share (FY 2011-12) Total Market Size: `3,825 crore

22% Alcatel Lucent 19% ECI Telecom

18% Others

The Players

18% Huawei

9% Ericsson 5% NSN 9% Tejas Network

68 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Initially, operators did not spend anything on core network for 3G rollout but having burnt their fingers, operators are looking at new technologies like Carrier Ethernet, GPON, and 40G/100G network. All these would be required for 3G rollout, making 4G ready network, and capacity expansion in national long distance network.

V&D Estimates

Alcatel-Lucent has done well to help operators transform their networks to next-generation optics. The company has supplied transmission equipment for major 3G operators who are ensuring adequate data carrying capacities in their networks. The company has supplied a top Indian service provider with backbone expansions and new network/links including ASON expansions.

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Alcatel Lucent

833

965

-14

ECI Telecom

708

625

Huawei

695

815

-15

Ericsson

350

570

-39

NSN

208

550

-62

Tejas Network

326

526

-38

Others

705

845

-17

Total

3,825

4,896

-22

Others include: Ciena, Tellabs, Fibcom, Teracom, Adva, ZTE, and UTL V&D Estimates

One of the top 4 Indian service providers has opted for network expansion and new network/links including ASON expansions. Another operator has deployed PTN network. The company has deployed DWDM network in France for a top Indian service provider for international gateway connectivity. The company has completed the first single carrier 100G DWDM trial in the country jointly with a leading telecom operator. The IP win with airtel will help in creating access network based on Carrier Ethernet technology (CEN) enabling the operator to deliver faster mobile broadband speeds to its customers. Alcatel-Lucent has also bagged an IP core contract with a major PSU, carrier ethernet contract for a top Indian service provider, and bagged 3 out of 4 GPON deals in the country. The company has deployed 40G technology in the Indian market and is in advance discussion with couple of operators. The company has bagged major share in the GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) market by supplying solutions to players like Velocis, Sterlite, and others. For example, Sterlite’s FiON a (fiber optic access network) powered by Alcatel is a fiber-to-the-home/premises (FTTx) technologies which carries high-speed connectivity right into the premises. Huawei has bagged deals from Vodafone and Bharti airtel. The company also has a strong transmission footprint in Tata,

Uninor, Aircel, and Idea. The company has bagged high-capacity DWDM deals in the fiscal. ZTE has bagged a contract from Power Grid Corporation of India to provide fixed-network transmission services across the country. As part of the agreement, ZTE will deploy more than 385 DWDMs, 1,025 SDHs, and several PTN devices to enhance PGCIL’s network coverage and service quality. In spite of a difficult environment, Tejas did well in wireless backhaul solutions and ethernet business service delivery platforms. In FY11, Tejas XTN family of packet optical transport products were selected by 4 tier1 Indian operators for their 3G and WiMax

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 5,000

wireless network builds across the country and they continued to procure additional systems from Tejas for their network expansion in respective circles even for FY12. In addition, Tejas was selected by a large CDMA operator for their data expansion project for EVDO-Rev B upgrade. Till date, Tejas has shipped several thousand XTN systems both in India as well as abroad. ECI continued with their business with all their existing customers who are leading private telcos. Major orders bagged were 3G expansion as well as one network for 4G backhaul. Even Ciena bagged few deals from large operators in the country. ADVA bagged orders from definitive existing customers as there were no new wins in India. The company had repeat business from long-haul operators. In FY12, C-DOT has designed and developed GPON technology which offers speed up to 1 Gbps and is ideal for rural and urban areas. The technology is meant for fiber expansion in the country to meet the requirements of major national programs such as NOFN (National Optical Fiber Network), SWAN (State Wide Area Network), broadband connectivity in rural, north-east and tribal areas, as well as expansion of networks of defense, railways networks, and many other strategic networks. In this direction, C-DOT has transferred Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology to 7 public and private manufacturers—ITI; Bharat Electronics (BEL); Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL); VMC, Hyderabad; Sai Information Systems, Ahmedabad; SM Creative, Gurgaon; and Tejas Networks, Bengaluru.

Future Play

-22%

2,500 3,825

4,896

2011-12

2010-11

V&D Estimates

With 3G deployed in top 350 cities in India, the demand for data is picking up due to increased usage of smartphones, tablets, and computers. Even BYOD concept is catching up among all industry verticals. To provide better user-experience to consumers and enterprise, operators need to deploy high capacity access and backhaul networks, both of which requires large investment in high-speed and scalable transmission solutions. Pravin Prashant pravinp@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JUNE 2012 | VOICE&DATA | 69

Test & Measurement

Smooth Sailing Rising domestic demands and new technologies are contributing to the growth of the test and measurement industry

70 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Test & Measurement

hanks to the quicker revolution and deployment of technologies including 3G and broadband wireless access, the Test and Measurement (T&M) industry has picked up pace in the recent years. The other factors contributing to its growth include WiMax, FTTX, LTE, all-IP networks or convergence concepts, and more specifically, the rising demands for quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE). The industry has emerged as a key factor influencing all market segments, right from design to development to deployment of a product or solution or technology across verticals. It is growing considerably due to the increasing domestic demands.

Top Players Agilent Technologies The company’s key verticals are R&D, aviation industry, defense, semiconductors, communications, education, and manufacturing. It also introduced Agilent PXT wireless communications test set in May 2012 for testing voice quality on Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE). It has invested in integrated circuits using a proprietary process and was able to increase transistors’ speed to more than 200 GHz. This investment further enabled the company to give its oscilloscopes a high frequency capability (up to 33 GHz). It has also adopted indirect distribution channels for its mainstream oscilloscope line and the company’s high performance application specific integrated circuits contributed to its growing market share in high end and mainstream oscilloscopes. Amongst the various products offered by the company are oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers and exercisers, EMI/EMC, phase noise/physical layer testing solutions, bit error ratio test solutions, etc.

Rohde & Schwarz For Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) India the business year 11-12 had been quite suc-

cessful. While the total order intake of company reached 225 crore. Its quantum jump in T&M came due to high growth in the telecom chipset R&D segment. Texas , Qualcomm, Broadcom, Honeywell, Intel, ConvasM, etc. invested heavily in augmenting their facilities for protocol/ signalling testing in LTE and 3G domains. In the mobile production segment, however, there were no major investments. Indian handset brands are still using china as a base for production and shipping into India. The company is confident to achieve good market share in the general purpose segment in coming years with its expanded product range and increased market reach by its pan India Channel partner network. Another interesting market was EMC where R&S continued its dominance. This segment for R&S is now poised to grow with high pace during next 3 to 5 years. Besides DRDO Labs and Defence production units like BEL, HALs, ECIL, etc, several companies in the automobile, automotive spares, lighting and medical are planning heavy investments in setting up own EMC labs. Rohde & Schwarz addresses diverse market segments viz wireless communications, broadcasting and electronics,

Market Share (FY 11-12) Total Market Size: `941 crore 36.6% Agilent 14.5% Spirent

10.8% Rohde & Schwarz

24.5% Others 3% Toshniwal 3.8% Aishwarya 6.8% JDSU

72 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

V&D Estimates

Highlights  5% of the investment on network

should be shifted on T&M  Procuring test and measurement equipment on a rental basis is catching up  There is rise in demand for mobile and broadband testers

aerospace and defense, homeland security, and critical infrastructure. It caters to the needs of as many as 70 countries and its exports account for approximately 90% of the revenue. Its products range of R&S include digital oscilloscopes, signal and spectrum analyzers, signal generators, vector network analyzers, etc.

Spirent Communications In 2011 the company registered growth for its test solutions, driven by high density and next generation data center technologies for cloud computing and mobile broadband. Service assurance needs for Ethernet in mobile backhaul and enterprise business services, growth in applications of global positioning technologies such as GPS/ GLONASS, and increased mobile internet traffic had driven the growth of the company. The parent company has been seeking growth through organic investments and also by acquisitions. In Asia Pacific region, the company witnessed strong demand from its performance analysis division which included wireless, data center, and high speed ethernet. It registered good sales for its high end and multi-constellation satellite simulators, GNSS simulators and combined GPS, and GLONASS in consumer devices from Asia Pacific region. From wireline and wireless to satellite networks, Spirent offers a complete portfolio of solutions to enhance the quality of customer’s experience. Its major products portfolio include broadband networking, convergence, next generation internet, wireless, enterprise networks, and satellite

Anritsu Antenna System Solutions Your work is cut out for you—you need to service more towers than ever before, complete sweeps quickly, and process traces fast. Make sure you have the best tools for the job.

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PIM Master™ MW8208A intermodulation (PIM) problems, you’re using the best—the PIM Master high-performance PIM analyzer from Anritsu.

The PIM Master: t Features patented technology—Distance-to-PIM™ t static PIM sources in seconds, inside and outside the antenna system t Is available for 850 MHz, 900 MHz, and 1900/2100 MHz bands

For details contact: ACIN-support@anritsu.com Authorized Distributor for India: Meera Agencies Pvt. Ltd. (URL - www.meeraagencies.com) Tel: +91-124 422 6990 (Gurgaon), +91-80 2349 3172 (Bangalore), +91-9870779794 (Mumbai), +91-9848039438 (Hyderabad), +91-9831368999 (Kolkota), +91-9500006053 (Chennai)

Test & Measurement

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Agilent Technologies

344

287

Spirent Communications

136

118

Rohde & Schwarz

102

JDSU

Aishwarya

-10

Toshniwal

Others

230

220

Total

941

831

Others include: Aimil, Anritsu, Empirix, Fluke Networks, Tektronix, and others V&D Estimates

navigation. The company predominantly caters to telecommunication but is now more inclined towards the market of emulation and validation and does not follow the analyzer companies. In addition, it has also quadrupled its sales to the lab space in India, enabling itself for the 4G data and handset testing market. The vendorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s focus this year is largely on the NEM segment.

Aishwarya Telecom The company gained momentum in the last fiscal, all thanks to the defense sector. Since 2010-11, it has received as many as 12 orders from defense for data lab in various parts of the country. It is also designing Electronic Marker Locating Systems for Indian army and this product has also good demand from sectors like water, sewage, and power from all over the world. It is providing turnkey solutions for defense labs and Indian army. The company manufactures products for telephone service providers, defense, cable TV operators, and railways. It has added Ericsson, Huawei, and Alcatel-Lucent to its clientele. Its products include mobile testers, data testers, fiber optic testers, and copper telephone cable testers. The company is focusing heavily on high end network testers for mobile operators, turnkey solutions for defense and telecom areas, defense related testers, bridging monitoring systems for infrastructure sectors like

railway bridges and road bridges, and also on education.

JDSU JDSU supports communications service providers and network equipment manufacturers worldwide to deploy advanced broadband communication services. Some of its key customers are Bharti airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Dax Technologies, NetSocket, Frontier Communications, Infinera, Verizon, Southern Cross Cable Network, Telstra, and Telefonica. The company will continue to invest in mobility and video. The key investment in FY12

was the acquisition of Vancouver based Dyaptive Systems. The Dyaptive product line provides subscriber emulation systems for wireless technologies including LTE solutions to ensure quality of service performance. The product line of JDSU includes PacketPortal, PacketInsight, Optical Spectrum Analyzer, ONT based SyncE solution, TrueSpeed Automated TCP Test, Trueflex, and Tunable SFP+.

Tektronix Tektronix offers test and measurement solutions to communications, computers, semiconductors, military/aerospace, consumer electronics, education, broadcast, and other fields all over the globe. It has introduced a complete DDR2 protocol debug and validation solution for the TLA6000 series logic analyzers. The company has enjoyed a notable position in the test and measurement market. The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s instruments contributed significantly to the development of computers, and test and communications equipment to advance the research and development of the high technology electronics industry. Its product line comprises oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, bit error rate testers, signal generators, spectrum analyzers, frequency counters, Baseband Video test solutions, MPEG Video test solutions, etc.

Fluke Networks

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 1,000

13%

500 941

831

2011-12

2010-11

74 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

V&D Estimates

Fluke Networks provides network test and monitoring solutions to speed up deployment and improve the performance of networks and applications. It provides testing solutions across seven layers of installed IP infrastructure and for the delivery of applications. In FY 2012, its key customers include Border Security Force, Cognizant Technology Services (CTS) and national Payments Corporation of India. Fluke Networks provides network test and monitoring solutions to speed up deployment and improve the performance of networks and applications. The company offers solutions to WLAN security, mobility, unified communications, and data centers.

Test & Measurement

Anritsu Anritsu has expanded chiefly into the information and communications field. The company is largely into products and services which are indispensable for the development, manufacturing, and maintenance of a range of communication systems. Anritsuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s technologies have been incorporated into a range of products in other fields as well, such as IP network equipment, inspection equipment for food and pharmaceutical products, and precision measuring instruments for electronic components. Its innovations in the field of measurement play a vital role in developing, providing, and maintaining communication networks. Its test and measurement business operations are based on the technological progress at R&D centers in

Anritsuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s innovations in the field of measurement play a vital role in developing, and maintaining comm networks Japan, the US and Europe. Its prominent products are T&M equipment, industrial automation, and information and communications technology. Its key verticals include telecom (R&D, infrastructure, and

76 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

manufacturing), government, education and research, mobile terminals, optical communication networks, car electronics, and intelligent home appliances.

Toshniwal Systems and Instruments Toshniwal has expertise in process instrumentation, process vacuum and powder processing equipment, temperature measurement instruments, etc. It caters to pharmaceutical/ biotechnology, transport and packaging, power generation, metal processing, refrigeration and air-conditioning, and chemicals and petrochemical sectors. Its major products are gear meters, turbine flow meters, vortex meters, density meters, cone meters, etc. The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s manufacturing unit is located in Chennai

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Next-Gen WiFi Set to Drive Mobility for GenX Mobile and Video Generation is always looking at freedom (mobility) and rich media content, and WiFi’s next gen standard is pushing forward both these factors for GenX

s the end customers look for many places where we still find dead mobility and ease of use, WiFi is spots – where there is very little WiFi set to gain further momentum. connectivity. Homes and apartments If we look at the standards, the next now plagued with “dead spots” will gen WiFi - IEEE 802.11ac is the fifth enjoy vastly improved reception. And generation in Wi-Fi networking most importantly, faster file transfer standards and is set to bring fast, high also leads to longer battery life in quality video streaming and nearly smartphones and handsets. instantaneous data syncing and backup What is most important is the fact to the convergence friendly devices like tablets, notebooks, and smart phones or mobiles that have become an integral part of the end customer’s lifestyle now. IEEE 802.11ac is a wireless computer networking standard of 802.11 currently under development which will provide high throughput Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) on the 5 GHz band). This standard is likely to hit the markets by the end of year 2012. Once it finds its way, entry level IEEE 802.11ac products will provide a data rate of 433 Mbps, Nafis Kazim, Sr. Vice President, Shyam Networks Limited which should be at least three times faster than that of the most that products based on IEEE 802.11ac common devices using the current will be fully compatible with current Wiwireless standard. Fi devices. Delivering true mobility and And because the new standard gives driving convergence, mobile phones device manufacturers the flexibility to and tablets, both very important for offer a range of products with different Wi-Fi markets are likely to ship with levels of performance, once in action, IEEE 802.11ac chips by 2013. high-speed IEEE 802.11ac devices will WiFi next gen standard, IEEE offer wireless transmission in excess 802.11ac is the fifth generation of of a Gigabit per second—remarkable Wi-Fi to come along since Wi-Fi was speeds that can put IEEE 802.11ac introduced way back in the year 1997. wireless networks ahead of most wired The roll-out of new IEEE 802.11ac networks of present scenario. standard based devices is expected In addition to this, there will be huge to take between one and three years, improvements in wireless connectivity beginning first with home networking quality, reliability, range, and coverage. products and then working its way to In the present scenario, there are other products as manufacturing costs

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Test & Measurement

and it covers analytical, process control, and electronics and laboratory product domains through successful international collaborations.

Growth Drivers Major technological trends driving the T&M industry in India include urbanization, growing infrastructure, cloud computing, wireless intelligence, broadband applications in future, and smart and green technologies amongst others. To support the increasing number of mobile subscribers, the private and public sector telecom service providers are expanding their networks. This will further rise the demand of mobile and broadband testers. Telcos has increased its investment in T&M equipment procurement due to the high demand of QoS. Services such as internet banking, stock trading, web surfing, and video conferencing which can be availed via mobile networks are also driving the market. The smartphones boom and the migration from 3G to 4G have been dominating the headlines and will continue to draw attention as wireless carriers strive to meet the needs of the customers. How service providers can overcome quality of service challenges brought on by increasing bandwidthâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;remains a critical component of 4G migration. Through our collaboration with global carriers, we are able to confront these challenges by providing solutions in effective deployment of next generation networks and prevent network congestion. Issues that carriers will likely confront with 4G migration include difficult-to-troubleshoot user configuration errors and managing networks for unpredictable data demands from video streaming websites and testing applications. The profound shifting to the cloud for everything from application delivery and security to monitoring is also becoming more prevalent, especially in the enterprise sector. There are management difficulties the cloud brings, but tools are there for the enterprise professionals which will enable a

Another trend catching on is that the switch companies and service providers are procuring test and measurement equipment on a rental basis instead of purchasing the equipment smarter and more economical operation of the network. Migration of voice and video to IP, infrastructure development, growth in the mobile phone market, and the advent of next generation wireless technologies will fuel the T&M instruments market. It will further derive its growth from service assurance of IP networks, optical and synchronization quality of the network, and carrier and metro Ethernet. India is a hub for electronic manufacturing services (EMS), and the growing demand from this sector will further add impetus to the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s T&M instrument market. Another trend catching on is that the switch companies and service providers are procuring test and measurement equipment on a rental basis instead of purchasing the equipment. With industry moving towards outsourcing, T&M rentals are increasingly viewed as a way of outsourcing T&M management.

Market Crisis One of the obstacles in the market is that telecom operators have reduced expenditure on capex and sub-contracting work is increasing. There is much more potential in LTE but, as of now, some operators are holding back on LTE. A very few operators

78 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

have realized the need for T&M. Customer acquisition and ARPUs are important in India rather than quality. Industry consensus is that 5% of the investment on network should be shifted to T&M. Fluctuation in foreign exchange has also posed a threat.

Opportunities Galore Currently, operators are planning to expand their respective networks. The government of India and the Department of Telecommunication have plans to provide internet connectivity in all villages under Panchayat Raj department, a potential project in coming years. In India, the deployment and development of 3G has triggered the applications of IMA, carrier Ethernet technology, the emerging IEEE-1588, and synchronous Ethernet technology in mobile backhaul. Large scale deployments of communication technologies now require large scale emulation. 1588, Sync-E, MEF-18, and MPLS-TP are the new standards for mobile backhaul testing. More sophisticated service provider networks require advanced and economical monitoring solutions. EMF analyzers registered a jump in demand this year. Also, the demand for 3G testers like radiocomm testers, signal generators, analyzers, and power meters is on rise. The test instruments could cater to a variety of verification and conformance tests ranging from SAR, audio, RF, protocol, and IOT. 3G is also picking up pace. The subscriber base is expected to shoot up as some of the operators like Vodafone and Idea Cellular have slashed prices recently. Location based services are also gaining momentum in India. Networks are moving to IP. LTE rollout will also give a boost to T&M segment both from devices and networks. India was primarily a follower of technology but the deployment of LTE technology is happening parallel in India and globally. Hence the test and measurement segment is likely to have an excellent growth in coming years. Malini N malinin@cybermedia.co.in

Telecom Turnkey

All’s not Well

An infrastructure rollout is needed to create a conducive environment for the growth of telecom turnkey Highlights  No major deals floated in the    



arred by a number of unexpected factors including the failure of the much-hyped 3G and cancellation of all the 122 telecom licenses, the telecom turnkey market has been feeling the blues. In the last two years, the market is not meeting growth expectations due to unmet deals by telecom service providers. Many other factors like policy paralysis, scams, and litigation also have had a negative impact on the industry’s growth. So the turnkey vendors have been left with no other choice but to survive under such unfavorable conditions. The dip in the overall revenue of the market can be attributed to a lack of new orders from equipment vendors. It is because the vendors are the biggest buyers of turnkey equipment and they place large

Market Share

Total Market Size: `1,862 crore

38.13% Shyam Telecom

26.85% TCIL

10.85% HFCL

4.4% Nutek 4.3% UTL 4.83% Others

80 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

7.95% ITI

2.69% GTL V&D Estimates

segment at large Lower capex by IP-1 companies Management changes in few IP-1 players Infrastructure rollout to propel growth GTL and ITI saw maximum dip and GTL is now focusing on power sector Outlook for the sector looks promising over 2-3 years timeframe due to 3G and 4G deployment

orders only when they are significantly expanding their footprint. And since there were no major expansions by operators, the market did not do well. But what has further worsened the market is the unexpected failure of 3G and BWA and lower capex by IP-1 companies. The response of 3G services was not encouraging while the BWA services too has not met expectations. Now with 3G spreading, the focus on improving quality of service and the need to cater to new subscribers are making operators strengthen their presence in existing circles. Managed services deals replacing supply deals have become the new mantra for telecom players. The trend has been firmly established with almost all operators signing the managed services deals. The new operators are also likely to follow the trend.

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

the last fiscal year, apart from its ongoing activities in telecom implementation, technical support services, and O&M of telecom infrastructure, Nutek bagged orders, mainly into O&M segment from the government operator in J&K, 1 from a IP-1 company in J&K and HP, another from a IP-1 company in UP West, and 1 from a Chinese OEM major in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, etc.

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Shyam Telecom

710

606

TCIL

500

528

-5

HFCL

202

146

ITI

148

1,658

-91

Nutek

284

-71

UTL

373

-79

Hurdles to Cross

GTL

1,656

-97

The next big market for telephony in India is the underserved rural market. Rapid growth will come from rural India where operators are adequately reassured of the demand and the potential to pay for services. In light of this, connecting the unconnected has become the prime focus of most players and to serve this huge untapped market will be a key growth enabler and also a potential business opportunity for the operators. To fulfill this demand, there are certain issues that need to be taken care of, like the availability of power, supporting infrastructure like roads, and uniform regulations.

Others

175

-49

Total

1,862

5,362

-65

Others include: Mack Telecom, Commtel, and RPG V&D Estimates

How they Fared Smaller players Shyam Telecom saw big momentum during last fiscal. It bagged big size orders from railways, defense, and PSU sectors. ITI, the PSU telecom firm, has bagged orders from government sectors like defense, Indian railways, and state owned telcos. Following the tradition, the company also got few turnkey orders from BSNL and MTNL. In addition, the company is also executing the National Population Register (NPR) Project under the Ministry of Home Affairs as well as the Socio Economic Caste Census Project (SECC) under the Ministry of Rural Development. These projects are being executed along with two other PSUs— BEL and ECIL. The NPR Project envisages manufacturing of National ID cards. Telecommunications Consultants India (TCIL) bagged few deals in the fiscal. The major deals were National Internet Backbone (NIB) project for BSNL, Quality of service check for Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and ship to shore communication for Director General of light house and light shipping. The company is all set to do the project management of `20,000 crore national optical fibre for BSNL with the help of BSNL, Rail tel, and PGCIL by July 2012. GTL’s focus for the last fiscal remained on three areas—network planning and design, network operations, and maintenance and energy management. It also won few pan-India contracts from

clients like Huawei, Aircel, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, and ZTE on network planning, designing, and deployment. Telecommunications turnkey provisioning business was neither good nor bad for HFCL. The major deal bagged by the company was the network management deal from Reliance 4G foray. HFCL is also betting big time and looking at the Reliance deal for increasing its turnover . Nutek also managed to secure new deals in turnkey rollouts for defense forces, telecom turnkey manpower outsourcing deals, and turnkey maintenance deals with certain telecom OEMs. During

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 6,000

-65%

3,000

5,362

1,862 0 2011-12

2010-11 V&D Estimates

Outlook Remains Robust The outlook for telecom turnkey rollout services continues to remain robust in view of factors like high growth rate of subscribers, on-track capex plans of all major telcos, and additional opportunities from incumbent operators. Infrastructure rollout plans of existing and incumbent operators look very much intact on the back of opportunities provided by continued healthy subscriber addition and an untapped rural market. However the outlook for the sector looks promising over the 2-3 years timeframe. Fresh auctioning of telecom licenses is slated to happen in the current fiscal year and the services on LTE platform too are on the verge of launch. Also, the possibility of sector consolidation in terms of M&A could not be ruled out and transparent and conducive policy environment is the only hope. On the back of these above mentioned factors, we expect the industry to get back on track, clocking a pretty decent growth rate over the years to come. Ritu Singh ritus@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JUNE 2012 | VOICE&DATA | 81

Telecom Towers

Failing to Rise 3G’s failure has brought down the much promising tower segment to its knees Highlights  Operator’s reluctance in 3G

network expansion affected the tower industry  Some operators shut shop, affecting the tower players with less tenants  Cash crunch and major management reshuffle at many tower companies affected the industry  Tower companies are betting big on solar and wind power and gas solutions be it piped natural gas, LPG, and CNG

he unexpected failure of 3G hit each and every stakeholder of the Indian telecommunications industry, and the telecom tower segment was no exception. Slower than expected offtake of 3G rollouts, and the delay in rolling out the BWA networks, even after a year of paying out the license fees, has forced the tower segment to display a reluctant performance. 3G rollout being limited to the top 40 cities in India and the primary focus being on upgrading and utilizing the existing infrastructure, has pulled the segment down. According to VOICE&DATA estimates, the telecom tower industry added a mere 7,213 towers in fiscal 2011-12 flat growth. The key players in the telecom tower business are Indus Towers, Bharti Infratel, Viom Networks, GTL, American Towers, BSNL, and MTNL.

Market Share

Total Market Size: 376,187 16.31% BSNL 29.01% Indus

13.29% Reliance Infratel 11.17% GTL Infra

3.48% Others

11.16% Viom Networks 8.86% 2.39% Bharti Infratel American Towers 1.01% MTNL 1.06% Ascend Telecom 2.26% Tower Vision

82 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

V&D Estimates

Players Maintaining its place at the #1 position is Indus. The company that has three anchor clients Bharti airtel, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular to its credit boasts of 109,114 towers. Indus Towers has coverage in 16 circles and healthy tenancy ratio of 1.94 has a high speed-to-market. With new operators rolling out services, the tower company is on a high-growth trajectory. The company is also betting big on its green endeavor and testing wind power and gas solutions—be it piped natural gas, LPG solutions, and CNG based solutions. The company is developing biomass solutions for telecom towers. It seems that the company is planning to deploy all these solutions in large numbers in the near future and plans to be the largest green energy deployment in the world for the telecom vertical.

Telecom Towers

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Towers (in number )

Tenancy Ratio

Change (%)

109,073

1.94

60,161

50,000

58,000

1.85

-14

GTL Infra

42,007

33,681

1.45

Viom Networks

42,000

40,000

2.35

Bharti Infratel

33,326

33,042

1.82

American Towers

9,000

8,000

1.9

MTNL

3,800

2,017

1.2

Ascend Telecom

4,000

3,500

1.7

Tower Vision

8,500

6,200

1.5

Others

13,100

15,300

-14

368,974

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Indus

109,114

BSNL

61,340

Reliance Infratel

Total

376,187

Others include: MTS,Videocon, STel, Aircel, Etisalat DB, Uninor and Loop V&D Estimates

To make this plan a reality, Indus has decided to invite proposals for setting up independent renewable energy companies, which will generate and supply green power to run towers. Second on the chart is BSNL. This public firm having 61,340 towers in the country added another 1,179 towers in the last fiscal. It leased out 566 towers to other TSPs in 2011-12 and earned a revenue of `42.67 crore through the leasing. The company that has pan-India 3G licences however it did not majorly invest in terms of revenue, manpower and R&D and failed to make any strategic acquisitions as well. Sharing of BSNL towers by other TSPs like Reliance, Idea, TTSL, airtel, and Vodafone etc, was not as per expectations. Moreover major TSPs hired towers from their own infra companies such as Indus, Bharti Infratel, Reliance Infratel, etc, and demand from these operators was hardly as expected. The company is today re-looking at outsourcing the O&M activities of passive infra of towers on fixed charge basis (including EB and fuel charges) to the O&M agencies available in the industry with a mandate that the O&M agency will bear the capex for maintaining the

passive infra for a period of 7-10 years after taking over the site. From an operational perspective GTL is undertaking initiatives like energy management, network operations center, etc, through which the company aims to bring down the operational expenditure. Additionally it is also trying to address some of the supply chain challenges and generate further efficiency. The current investment is focussed on improving operating efficiency and taking care of its

Market Size (in numbers) Towers (in 2011-12) 400,000

200,000

1.95%

376,187

368,974

0 2011-12

84 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

2010-11 V&D Estimates

organic growth requirements. The firm also completed the acquisition of Aircelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s telecom towers. Viom, formerly QuippoWTTIL, boasts of 42,000 towers. During the last financial year the company registered a significant increase in tenancy ratio from 1.7x to 2.35x over the last 3 years. The company has also achieved the 2nd largest share in the incremental Tenancy Market Share (TMS) accounting for 33% of the incremental TMS. Viom Networks has paused further capital expenditure on building new towers till further clarity emerges. The company has plans to set up another 20,000-25,000 in the next couple of years. Reliance Infratel, for instance, is seeking to recover `1,200 crore from Etisalat DB Telecom India for the use of its telecom infrastructure in the past. The growth in the sector will be primarily driven by increasing rural penetration and deployement of 3G services. The current market trends are also forcing the tower cores to shift their focus from building new assets to tenancy. This, in turn, is likely to truncate the costs and make every player build a strategic decision based on demand from tenants. In the infrastructure space, the industry is undergoing sharing of passive telecom infrastructure for in-building coverage. Sharing of passive infrastructure also brings with itself a compelling business case for independent infra-owning companies and in turn for the services companies since this considerably reduces the cost. Moreover the Rapid Deployment Towers (RDT) to cut down the lead time and thus resulting in faster deployments of telecom infrastructure, also happens to be a trend that the industry is undergoing presently.

Areas of Concern The telecom tower industry that happens to be the infrastructure backbone for the telecom industry and the growth plan, however is today facing some serious concerns that needs to be addressed with utmost importance. There are a few regulatory challenges

The current market trends are forcing tower companies to shift their focus from building new assets to tenancy that have emerged lately with the recent licence cancellation by the Supreme Court of India as well as guidelines of Trai like the universal service regulation, cenvat issues, levy of taxes etc. There are also challenges on the execution side, given the state of availability of electricity and other infrastructure. The costs are high and logistics/storage/pilferage add to the problem. Also there is multiplicity of regulations, but the a need is to have a uniform policy governing the sector. The other factors that are pulling down the growth string include imposition of license fee by many state governments, opposition of public, NGO, gram panchayats in many areas of the country for installation and maintenance of telecom towers on account of health hazards, no big role out by new TSPs, rapid increase in diesel prices, new guidelines of Trai as well as issues related to RoW (Right of Way). The tower industry also awaits the finalisation of getting the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;key infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; status, such that the services rendered by them are recognised as critical and these tower companies are provided with improved grid power connectivity. The industry players have also been awaiting the support of the universal service obligation fund to erect towers in rural and low penetrated areas. While the government has recently announced, as part of its charter for the Draft of the New Telecom Policy, a recommendation towards granting infrastructure industry status to the telecom tower industry, there still remain stiff challenges to this critical sector. It is constantly seeking government support to incur research and development expenditure to transition towards greener technologies. The issues that need to be addressed

urgently to bring back the segment on a growth trajectory are the need for a single window clearance, permission to be granted in a transparent and timebound manner, uniformity in tariff/fee and procedures across all states, development and adoption of standards for all types of new towers in telecom, policy for setting up of IBS in government buildings, airports, hospitals, shopping malls, etc, and provisioning of land and power connection on priority in rural areas by the state government.

The Future Looking at the uncertainty in the whole tower business, it would be correct to say that it is now a wait-and-watch game as the period of excitement over new entrants gets over, pressing on the need of infrastructure expansion through sharing. The tower companies will have to develop new business models and move to active infrastructure sharing. Technological changes like the movement towards higher share of outdoor BTS, high-gain antennas, etc could significantly impact the market dynamics. Also, the 3G and WiMax rollout is expected to increase tenancy. For voice, operators would also be looking with major impetus on rural expansion. The telecom industry is also tipped to being at a cusp of a second revolution, which is primarily being driven by data. 3G and BWA deployment is poised to push this growth impetus for telecom in the next 2-3 years, and the major players would be focus towards building a state-of-the-art data network. This in effect would lead to a projected high demand of towers and increased mobile data consumption will be the driver for the same. The newer operators are likely to wait for the bidding process and then initate rollout activity which would happen only in the later part of the year. The industry would also continue to experience consolidation as it becomed increasingly tough for smaller players to operate on unviable margins and becomes the expected service uptime. Ritu Singh ritus@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JUNE 2012 | VOICE&DATA | 85

OSS/BSS

On Its Toes The industry is being shaped significantly by service quality and availability, customer behavior, ease-of-use of services, and social media Highlights  Billing transformation,

application consolidation, policy control, charging are the areas for future growth  New media, mobile solutions, mobile number portability, and analytics will drive growth  Convergent OSS/BSS platform is in demand  Customer centricity, revenue leakages, convergence, slower 3G deployment, and migration to NGN are few critical issues for the operators

oday, many areas have become critical for an operator’s positive growth. OSS/BSS is one of them. It drives the customer experience and serves as an intriguing tool for monetizing traffic, offerings, and products that an operator sells. Last year, the telecom industry was shaped significantly by the service quality & availability, customer behavior, ease-ofuse of services, and social media. The service providers focused on customization and convergence across disparate networks and applications. This was majorly contributed by BSS/OSS converged and transformed platforms. The mobile data explosion and services monetization are also adding to OSS/BSS investments y-o-y. The biggest challenge is to keep

abreast with the stiff coampetition. The market is not big enough for all to gain and prosper. The OSS/BSS community deals with many challenges apart from keeping tough fight to be in competition. What is critical for operators, has automatically become an area of potential for the OSS/BSS community.

A Close Look at the Market Amdocs kick-started the last fiscal by completing the acquisition of Bridgewater Systems Corporation, a publicly held provider of policy management and network control solutions. Amdocs signed multiple business contracts with wins across the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) region. Amdocs, by the end of last fiscal, also signed a multi-year extension of its existing software license and service agreements with Comcast Cable Communications.

86 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Comverse’s mobile number portability business line resulted in its significant gains for tier-1 clients. They gained through selling their MNP module to these operators. Besides the huge mobile market, the growth in Digital TV (DTH) market helped them in expanding their BSS footprint in the market. In FY12, Comverse also gained from the expansion and managed operations at Videocon Mobile and a product upgrade and expansion at one of our tier-1 mobile clients in India. Aricent credited its achievements in its various projects by being involved in the fourth-generation technologies, customer experience management, data analytics, and service operating models around M2M throughout the year. Ericsson strengthened its focus on OSS/BSS from last fiscal. Ericsson complet-

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Tata Postpaid

Comverse, Elitecore

Prepaid

Elitecore, Telcordia

CRM

Oracle

Datacom

Bharti

Vodafone

Reliance

Idea

Aircel

Ericsson

Comverse, Elitecore

Amdocs

Elitecore, Telesoft

Elitecore, Ericsson

Comverse, Amdocs

Comverse, Ericsson CSG

Comverse, Elitecore

Amdocs

Oracle

Elitecore, Oracle

Amdocs

CSG

Oracle

CSG

Cognos(IBM)

Comverse

BSNL Comverse, Elitecore Elitecore

Loop

Uninor

Stel Elitecore

Comverse

Elitecore

CSG

Investment Self care + EBPP

Elitecore, Oracle

ERP

SAP

Revenue Assurance

Subex

Amdocs

Connectiva

Mediation

Comverse, Comptel

Amdocs, Comverse

Comptel, Elitecore

Order Provisioning

Comverse, Tibco

Cognos

Cognos(IBM)

Elitecore, Oracle

SAP

Cognos(IBM) Connectiva Elitecore,CSG

Elitecore, Comptel

Amdocs, Comverse, Comverse, Cognos(IBM) Comptel

Oracle, Comverse

Amdocs, Comptel

Cognos

Cognos(IBM)

Connectiva, Subex

Fraud Management Interconnect Billing

MTNL

Comverse, Comverse, Elitecore, CSG Amdocs Amdocs Elitecore, Keenan

CSG

Amdocs

Elitecore

Middleware

CSG

Elitecore, Comptel

CSG, Elitecore

Comverse

Cognos(IBM), Comptel

Comverse

Comverse, Elitecore

Elitecore

Cognos(IBM)

Subex

Connectiva, Subex

Subex

Connectiva

Amdocs

CSG

Elitecore

Cognos(IBM) V&D Estimates

ed the acquisition of Telcordia for $1.15 bn early this year. With this acquisition, Ericsson gained a prominent market share of prepaid charging in India. Telcordiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strongest business line in MNP has also come into Ericssonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kitty. Apart from this, Ericsson signed a contract with Mobifone to consolidate its 6 Regional Network Operations Centers (RNOC) in Vietnam into one centralized NOC in Hanoi. For this, Ericsson will drive an OSS transformation program by implementing a unified network management system. Elitecore has bagged major contracts this year with tier-1 operators such as Vodafone, airtel, Aircel, PT Telkom, and XL Axiata. Their key contributing projects were charging gateway function, Wi-Fi offload, AAA for 3G Network, and enterprise billing. The main sectors which contributed to their revenues in FY12 included 3G packet core projects, policy management, and Wi-Fi offload. Tech Mahindra also had many key wins to its credit. It won a managed services contract for 3 years with an option of extension of further 2 years from a licensed provider of fixed and mobile telecommunications for BSS Applications. In this, Tech M is delivering the rapid releases, postpaid, fixedline, and MNP projects. Tech Mahindra has partnered

with the customer in a project to replace the billing system for the broadband operator on WiMAX 16e network along with a managed service contract for 2 years for their OSS/BSS systems. Tech Mahindra also signed a MoU with Sitronics India to promote the OSS/ BSS solutions. In the framework of the agreement, Tech Mahindra will promote the OSS/BSS solutions of Sitronics India in the Indian market and both the parties would mutually explore and leverage their expertise in development, implementation, and support of different IT solutions. Apart from this, the company also tied up with Redknee to jump-start Telco-MVNx, a solution that will provide MVNO/Es with a low-risk and flexible approach that can be launched in the market in a week. Subex also launched various products and solutions last fiscal gaining a substantial market presence. The company won multiple contracts for its ROC fraud management and revenue assurance solutions with various operators including tier-1 African operator, Idea Cellular, a greenfield operator in APAC, and with a middle eastern mobile operator. The company also received the International Standard Organisation (ISO) & Information Security Management System (ISMS)

accreditation, ISO 27001, to support its work for BT last fiscal. SAP was also not behind in launching various solutions last fiscal such as file lifecycle management, policy management framework, and address data cleansing softwares. SAP also announced real-time analytics solutions in the cloud last fiscal.

What the Future Holds The need for a convergent OSS/BSS platform for rapid development and deployment of new services and applications has become inevitable for the operators. It is critical to offer the end-users customized services with improved quality of service (QoS), which is only possible with a convergent OSS/BSS platform supporting an end-to-end unified customer- and service-level view. Billing transformation, application consolidation, policy control, and charging are the areas for future growth. Given the volatility of environment in the past 3-4 years, even a slight delay in launching new and improved services can be extremely detrimental for the telecom operators. Hence the speed to market becomes crucial and so does enabling BSS/OSS stacks. Akanksha Singh akankshas@cyberemdia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JUNE 2012 | VOICE&DATA | 87

Telecom Cables

Back In Gear Dealing with huge crisis for some time, telecom cable manufacturers are riding high as FY12 brings in promises of growth Highlights  Demand for OFC will be driven

by 3G, BWA and other high speed networks  Fiber to the home (FTTH) emerging into the mainstream  Projects like the NOFN, Defense and Navy projects and projects on FTTH would be major drivers for growth  broadband services, internet protocol virtual private network (IP-VPN), wireless communications, and security technologies

ealing with a huge crisis for the past few years the telecom cable industry has shown some signs of revival. The market was going from bad to worse with an intensive price war among the cable manufacturers and losses y-o-y. However FY12 has brought a huge smile to the manufacturers as industry shows positive growth with overall market clocking revenue of `1,422 crore in FY12 from `1,299 crore in FY11 showing a promising growth of 9%. Sterlite, Birla Ericsson, Finolex Cables, Vindhya Telelinks and Aksh Optifibre contributed a major chunk of the market share. Sterlite remained a leader with total revenue for telecom cables at `804 crore in FY12 followed by Aksh Optifibre with `171 crore.

Market Share (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `1,422 crore

56.5% Sterlite

12% Aksh Optiﬁbre 10.4% 7.2% Finolex Vindhya Telelinks 7% RPG Cables 5.1% Birla Ericsson 1.8% Paramount Cables

88 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

V&D Estimates

Market Watch Telecom cables demand especially in copper cables is slipping drastically in India. The reason for the slowdown is the slow offtake, especially from the private players. Due to the overall adverse conditions prevailing in the cable industry, many players are quitting the game having borne huge losses. Already 2 major players—Surana Telecom and Bhagyanagar Telecom—have exited. The demand for Jelly Filled Telephone Cables (JFTC) has declined sharply. Also, the demand for JFTC has decreased due to the wireless technology revolution and is further anticipated to go down with the launch of 3G and BWA services. The impact is so bad on JFTC manufacturers that some of the manufacturing units have also closed down. However having said that,

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Sterlite

804

656

Aksh Optifibre

171

101

Finolex

148

193

-23

Vindhya Telelinks

102

203

-50

RPG Cables

100

Birla Ericsson

Paramount Cables

733

-100

1,422

1,299

Surana Telecom Total

V&D Estimates

the players are letting no stone unturned for gaining positive growth. According to Sterlite, the company continues to be a preferred supplier to all buyers of fiber optic cables such as BSNL, Reliance, Tata, Bharti, MTNL, Indian Railways as well as utilities in the power, oil & gas, roadways, defense, and other sectors. Even though the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance is still low in the sector, it has shown better performance than its counterparts. RPG cables showed a good performance in the last fiscal. According to the financial results, the company bagged another contract in the cable business worth `145 crore for supply of power and telecom cables. Paramount Cables performed exceptionally well with revenues shooting upto `25 crore in FY12 from mere `3 crore in FY11 showing a huge growth potential. The company completed two major projects in JFTC segment for MTNL and BSNL of `8 crore and 17 crore, respectively. Currently, the company is working on a `18 crore project of BSNL for TIJF and a `15 crore order of BSNL in optical fiber.

impact on the wire & cable industry and would also provide for higher demand of these products by the base industries such as power generation and distribution sectors, telecom, railways, industrial and construction sectors (civil and commercial), etc. Numerous applications like broadband services, internet protocol virtual private network (IPVPN), wireless communications, and security technologies are in turn generating demand for the telecommunication cables. With the recent launch of 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) services, high speed and high bandwidth

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 1,500

750 1,422

1,299

2011-12

2010-11

Ray of Good Hope Cables, being used for transmission and distribution, are the veins of any infrastructure. The governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s initiatives for infrastructure development to reduce the infrastructure deficit would bear a direct

V&D Estimates

backhaul is needed, which would be met through optical fiber cables (OFC) networks that provide stable and upgradable backhaul system. The growth of OFCs has been long foreseen. The government has proposed National Optic Fiber Network (NOFN), a 250,000 km long system, to be implemented over the next 5 years. The Central Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on July 22, 2011, approved `30,000 crore NOFN for broadband connectivity to 2,500 panchayats in India. Thus, telecom cable manufacturers need to focus in this segment as the demand of OFC is likely to rise at a rapid pace in the future. Testament to this are the projects initiated by defense and navy departments. The Indian navy also has a requirement for 96F OFC for 3 zones. This brings in another area for fiber optic cable providers to lay out cables. Another order for the defense network; also needs to be set up by BSNL. This tender was invited for the procurement, supply, trenching, laying, installation, testing, and maintenance of optical fiber cable and accessories for the construction of exclusive optical NLD backbone. Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) is finally emerging into the mainstream and is set to transform the telecom environment worldwide over the next decade. These projects like NOFN, defense projects, and projects on fiber-to-the-home networks would be major drivers of growth. The telecom industry is facing challenges in delayed implementation of projects due to various environmental factors. Also the fluctuating dollar adds to the industry woes. Other challenges include ROW, reduced lifetime of cables due to mishandling, deployment times, complex tendering modalities, etc. The industry should recover on its own because of the strong growth in the data requirement as well. The overall trend for the technologies is focused on data and converged services, and making the solutions more robust. This will lead to more demand in the coming years. Akanksha Singh akankshas@cybermedia.co.in

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Power Management

Craving for Power Being an indispensible part of the telecom infrastructure, power management needs a timely boost from the industry Highlights  Adoption of renewable energy 



  

ower consumption is a vital constituent to provide telecom services. And with growing number of mobile users being added to the network each passing day, it has become all the more important for the operators to manage power consumption for their telecom infrastructure. According to VOICE&DATA estimates, the power management segment of the telecom industry even failed to power itself and witnessed a flat performance in the fiscal 2011-12. Though the segment witnessed some trickling business, it has failed to put itself on a growth trajectory owing to unmet expectations in terms of volumes. This happened because large operators waited and watched before making any major infrastructure decision. India currently has more than 400,000 telecom towers. The Indian telecom indus-

Market Share

Total Market Size: `698 crore

49.71% Delta 20.75% Others

19.91% Emerson

12.18% Eltek Valere

7.88% Acme

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V&D Estimates

and hybrid energy solutions Telecom site automation and legacy site modernization and optimization Telecom site surveillance to control fuel and energy theft problems Adoption of new storage technologies Greater focus required on rural areas Lack of appropriate regulatory measures

try consumes 2 bn liters of diesel every year for maintaining its mobile towers, and approximately `10,000 crore is annually spent on diesel. On an average, about `260,000 is being spent annually to fulfill the diesel requirements of a single telecom tower. Thus, undertaking initiatives to use energy more efficiently will not automatically translate to reducing power consumption. Moreover with the required infrastructure rollout to implement newer technologies like 4G and BWA, the urgency to manage power efficiently becomes even greater. This calls for a unanimous approach by all stakeholders of the industry to try to move towards low power and eventually ‘no power’ technology. As efficient energy management makes smart use of power possible, it will help avoid further need for energy, keeping the environment clean.

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY11-12

FY10-11

Delta

347

315

Emerson

139

130

Eltek Valere

-6

Acme

-27

Others

Total

698

670

Others include: HBL, Luminous, Sukam, Riello PCI India, and Schneider Electric V&D Estimates

The Score Card New alternative energy solutions and renewable power solutions like solar and hybrid models are already being deployed on the sites that are demonstrating energy savings. Apart from deploying cleaner energy sources, tower companies have realized that it is imperative to monitor various power consuming elements in their telecom infrastructure, and hence real-time monitoring systems are increasingly becoming the norm. With the power crisis and lack of proper power infrastructure in remote locations in India, the expenditure on power is even more. In a scenario like this, the challenge is to maintain the profitability, and yet expand network connectivity. Let’s take a look at some of prominent players of the segment and their performance over the last fiscal. The confident strides of the segment was demonstrated with Delta India Electronics showing an impressive growth rate. Maintaining its top place on the V&D100 list, the company churned out revenue of `347 crore in FY12. It has a market share of 49.7. Delta India, that has an expertise in indoor power solutions, outdoor power solutions, and TEC approved power solutions, successfully implemented site management and control solutions, hybrid solar solutions, and launched the first-ever project on fuel cell technology. The solutions include implementation of 1,000 telecom sites project with reduced diesel consumption leading to more than

60% saving than an average telecom site, remote site management service for bi-directional monitoring and control of telecom sites being offered through the company’s central network operations center, fuel cell site, hybrid site installation for major telecom operators as well as theft control solutions implemented in nearly 2,000 sites. Delta also offers site automation solutions such as site surveillance, access control, tamper-proof theft control solutions under its wireless asset management & wireless fuel management services. These solutions can be monitored, controlled, and managed through the central network operations center backed by IP cameras, RF tags, and sensors. The strategic tie-ups announced by the company in the fiscal include Ballard-Dantherm

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 800

400 698

670

2011-12

2010-11

0 V&D Estimates

(Canada) for Fuel Cell technology and C&D (USA) for Advanced VRLA (Fast Charge) and Li-ion batteries. Making it to the second place on the chart is Emerson Network Power. The company recorded a revenue of `139 crore in the FY 2011-12 and captured a market share of around 20%. The company provides end-to-end operations and maintenance of telecom infrastructure companies and enterprise cooling system for medium and highdensity data centers. It also bagged a project from Datacraft India to design six internet data centers across India. These data centers will be located in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, and Ludhiana. The company announced the addition of three next-generation UPS systems for large data center facilities in India—the Liebert Trinergy, the Liebert 80-Net, and the made-in-India Liebert SX. It is offering the energy efficient UPS systems currently available for protecting mission-critical infrastructure such as tier-3 and -4 data centers, from disruptions to mains power supply. The company recently changed its business model and is now focusing more on being a packaged power solutions provider. The change in the model is being driven by the acquisition of Avocent, which is into rack manufacturing and power management software. Avocent’s power management software plays an important role among large enterprises where monitoring power distribution and heat emission is critical. The monitoring software provides details like heat generation, power requirement, etc. Making it third on the charts is Eltek Valere. The company churned a revenue of `85 in the fiscal and as grabbed a market share of around 12%. It’s products and solutions are designed to match any power requirement within the telecom sector, and includes are power systems, rectifiers , monitoring and control, convertors, inverters, outdoors solution,Telecom Utility Manager(TUM) and Solar Hybrid Solutions. Coming in fourth on the list is Acme. The Acme Battery Cooler maximizes the lifespan of expensive telecom batteries

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Power Management

and results in quick RoI. It is designed for cooling battery cabinets with IP54 protection level and is suitable for operating in industrial environments. Its Green Shelter is an integrated, tailor-made, and endto-end energy management solution to minimize energy needs at site resulting in power savings of 3,120 units/year/site. The shelters come as riveted/rivetless/or liftable shelters. Its Ultra Low Cost Site Solution (ULCS) lowers energy consuming operations based on DC architecture that saves 35% energy for sites with poor grid connectivity. The architecture reduces diesel consumption by 30%, air conditioner power by 67%, and reduces battery bank by 50%. The company commissioned 15 MW Solar Photovoltaic Power project at Khambat in Gujarat. Acme has signed a module supply agreement with First Solar Inc for project execution. The agreement covers the supply of First Solarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advanced thin-film modules. ACME Group is making strides into newer technology areas that have the capability to fuel its growth in the times to come. There has been a deliberate focus on commercializing technologies for environment-friendly and efficient energy generation systems like Solar Photovoltaic for megawatt class power generation. Meanwhile Schneider Electric started a new business vertical which provides audit, assessment and consulting services for better Data Center infrastructure management. It audits the health of data center and checks its performance in terms of energy efficiency, space, flexibility and availability.The vertical is expected to help most data center operators who plan to have a virtualized and load-balanced infrastructure

Propelling Growth The telecom industry has been one of the biggest consumers of energy since networks became operational 24x7. The growth of the sector is directly proportional to the mounting costs for developing physical infrastructure and the Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHGs). The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector currently contributes approximately 2% of global carbon

Lack of the right kind of business model and developed alternative energy ecosystem has hampered the growth of power management emissions, more than 2/3rds of which are generated by the network. A typical communications company spends nearly 1% of its revenues on energy which for large operators may amount to hundreds of crores of rupees, a Trai report suggests. Around 70% of telecom towers are in rural areas, where grid connected electricity is not available and as a result, a very large chunk of the towers are powered by diesel generators which produce a total of 5.3 mn liters of CO2 every year. Due to this high dependence on diesel, the operational costs of these cell sites increase drastically to about 200% more than those where grid power availability is regular. So operators are left with no other option than to look for alternate power supply solutions like wind power, solar power, hybrid, or biodiesel solutions. With decreasing ARPU and increased opex, operators need a future-oriented wireless network solution to handle the challenges and boost profits. Now, the operators had to look for some solution without getting struck there. Maintaining the green juggernaut, instead of looking for green solutions for their energy requirements for the 0.35 mn plus towers, they looked for power efficient processes and more energy saving equipments for their entire network, and not just at tower sites. The major challenge today is also the high capex for the hybrid solutions, even though the RoIs are better. The telcos are

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looking out for the financial model, which is based upon opex. It is thus leading to a new crop of system integrators, who have yet to mature in taking decisions in terms of idle hybrid offerings to have the optimized energy savings.

What Pulls them Back Almost all the stakeholders of the industry have still not joined the bandwagon in order to make power management a business case, that once used to be a corporate responsibility and now a need. Replacing the unstable grid power that India has, mostly in the rural areas which are said to be a goldmine for telecom operators and have the potential to be the savior in a war-like situation that the telcos are going through at present, with other alternative sources of energy like solar, wind, bio-diesel, etc, was thought to be the best bet. However lack of the right kind of business model coupled with the poorly developed alternative energy ecosystem, has somehow not allowed the whole proposition to pick up momentum. The other major challenge is the lack of appropriate regulatory measures for rolling out projects. A telecom player witnesses the highest per unit cost of downtime amongst all major business sectors in the country. However the present state of disruption in the sector has led to a capex crunch. Many of the rural BTS sites are still running on old technologies and less efficient equipments. Upgrading these old sites involve a huge investment. Deploying reliable, environmental friendly and robust solutions in remote areas and receiving data is another challenge. Early detection of failures is a major concern due to the remote access.

The Future The concept of energy management is still evolving with the industry players trying to understand what needs to be done in a realistic fashion, and the business models have to emerge. The need of the hour is to cover a lot by the various proponents of the energy management solutions. Ritu Singh ritus@cybermedia.co.in

Telecom Software

Marching Ahead

The industry has gained with the CSPs investing heavily in embedded software, mobile communications, support systems, and network management Highlights  Embedded software, mobile

communications, integration communication devices such as PDAs will be growth areas  Protocol stacks, digital signal processors, machine-tomachine (M2M) are emerging fields  Service delivery platforms and customer care are fastest growing segments of the sector currently  Focus is on providing highquality services at affordable prices

arching ahead confidently is the Indian telecom software industry clocking revenues of `25,443 crore in FY12. Communication service providers (CSPs) are increasingly launching complex service offerings which require enhanced customer care, service assurance, and service fulfillment systems to support them. They prepare to support mobile data growth and content based services. This is being driven by the availability of smartphones, evolution of 3G and 4G rollouts, and a rapid growth of subscribers signing long-term contracts for data services. Over the last few years, the industry has gained momentum with CSPs investing heavily especially in areas like embedded software, mobile communi-

Market Share

Total Market Size: `25,443 crore

20.9% Tech Mahindra

17.5% Others

20.3% TCS

18.5% Wipro 13.5% Infosys 7.1% HCL Tech 2.1% Sasken V&D Estimates

cations, support systems, softwares for a component based element management systems, and network management system for equipment vendors, Machine-to-Machine (M2M), embedded and equipment testing for both wireline and wireless carriers. Today, the customers are dictating terms in a data-services rich environment. The operators are increasingly realizing that in order to keep their customers happy and satisfied, they will have to continually provide high-quality services at affordable prices. Hence, this has driven the telecom software industry to march in a direction where the operator’s interest lies. Players are offering deals customized to their customer’s choice and demand leading to a very healthy and steady growth.

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Telecom Software

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Tech Mahindra

5,321

5,056

TCS

5,171

4,437

Wipro

4,698

4,341

Infosys

3,441

3,549

-3

HCL Tech

1,817

1,682

Sasken

540

546

-1

Others

4,455

4,243

Total

25,443

23,854

Others include: IBM, Accenture, Mindtree, CSC, Patni, Oracle, Aricent, NSN, Ericsson and Huawei V&D Estimates

Market Scan Tech Mahindra again took the lead with 20.9% market share last fiscal. The biggest development for the company was its merger with Mahindra Satyam in the fourth quarter of last fiscal. Apart from this, Tech M bagged many deals last year. The company was chosen by a leading European telco for managing the operation and delivery of Vendor Access Services (VAS). Tech M was involved in transforming the sales operations system of a leading global telco. Apart from this the company was involved in a multi-year multi-million dollar deal to provide production support for covering customer care and mediation applications for a tier-I operator in North America. The second leading company in this domain is TCS. According to the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s financial results, one of the largest European telcos has partnered with TCS to restructure their application and infrastructure management services. TCS will help the client transition from their legacy service vendors, re-architect the solution delivery processes, and transform to an end-to-end managed services model. In another partnership, a leading US insurer has selected TCS in a multi-year program that aims to revamp its policy and customer management application portfolio and drive greater agility in product development, integrated marketing, and customer experience management.

Companies have shown better results in bagging good deals and projects last fiscal. Wipro won a large contract facilitated by NABARD to provide the total solution and implement CBS in the identified state co-operative banks and central co-operative banks, including providing the required database, middleware, network, project implementation, and project management. Infosys although showed slight decline in its telecom software division, the company still bagged interesting deals last fiscal. A resources conglomerate with

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 30,000

15,000 25,443

23,854

2011-12

2010-11

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V&D Estimates

interests in oil and gas, partnered with infosys to build a tablet based business intelligence solution to monitor energy consumption patterns. An oilfield services company has engaged Infosys to build a mobile asset tracking solution to monitor and manage heavy equipment deployed on the field. Infosys also created a tablet based sales lead management solution for senior executives of a Canada based insurer. For an American retailer, Infosys is creating a gift catalogue application, combining the power of mobile and social media allowing its customers to choose products and share it as gift wish lists with their friend circles. HCL on the other hand entered into an engagement with a leading state government road authority to develop a smarter, integrated, and inter-connected traffic management system. According to HCL, this enterprise standard traffic information system is the first of its kind in the APAC region. HCL and Cisco announced the creation of vertical solutions jointly. First of these solutions was targeted at the financial services industry to improve the endcustomer experience. HCL has also been chosen by a US based software product company for a multi-year engagement to enable reporting capabilities for its enterprise services business. Sasken also showed improved performance last fiscal. The company added close to 27 customers to their existing customer base.

What Will Drive Growth? In a highly competitive market, the operators are looking for solutions which will help them micro-segment the customers. The biggest increase in spending will be seen in mobility, compared to moderate growth for broadband and business segments. The fastest growing segments of the market will be service delivery platforms and customer care. CSPs strongly value the improved support they provide to their customers and the automation that minimizes the cost of support. Akanksha Singh akankshas@cybermedia.co.in

Enterprise

Equipment ROUTER............................................................................................................................. 96 SWITCH.............................................................................................................................. 98 VOICE SOLUTIONS........................................................................................................ 100 WLAN............................................................................................................................... 104 STRUCTURED CABLING................................................................................................ 106 NETWORK INTEGRATION............................................................................................. 122 NETWORK STORAGE..................................................................................................... 124 NETWORK SECURITY.................................................................................................... 126 MODEM............................................................................................................................ 128

Routers

Treading Cautiously For data transfer, wireless has always been the preferred medium, hence the focus on routers Highlights  Industry remained flat  Enterprises demand futuristic    

nterprises are a smart lot. As is rightly said, “challenging factors help you see more opportunities and make you smart in taking wiser decisions”, the difficult times of the last fiscal that was flanked with factors like rupee depreciation, delay in 3G, and 4G roll out, made the enterprises take decisions that are way ahead of their times and forward looking. Not just the enterprises, but also the service providers looked at ways and means to reduce their capex and opex and at the same time look at seamless capability to upgrade their existing infrastructure. Cost was one of the most brainstormed topics in the boardrooms of enterprises as well as service providers. They looked at business models that allow sharing of resources across multiple providers to reduce cost of operations.

Market Share

Total Market Size: `2,970 crore

60.44% Cisco

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16.67% Juniper

10.1% Alcatel-Lucent 5.72% Huawei 7.07% Others V&D Estimates

products 3G, 4G routers flooded the market Maximum traction in SMB, SOHO Streaming video fuel router demands Security getting more emphasis due to internal and external threats

Market Landscape Fiscal 2012 did not see much difference in terms of value creation in the Indian market, though the adoption trend saw a drastic change. Enterprises looked at deploying futuristic routers. Though 3G rollout was yet to see the light of day and 4G was nowhere in the picture, vendors were asked to provide routers which can support both the technologies. Today, vendors are introducing routers that have the capability to integrate key features such as content processing, VPNs, firewalls and load balancing. Wireless capabilities are also popular, replacing the need for separate wireless access points for small office networks. Security is a big focus area and this is evident from the new products being introduced by all vendors. The deployment of routers in both categories ensured that the above pa-

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Cisco

1,795

2,031

-12

Juniper

495

631

-22

Alcatel-Lucent

300

120

150

Huawei

170

Others

210

370

-43

Total

2,970

3,251

-9

Others include: D-Link, Dax, RTS, Midas, Smartlink and Leoxsys V&D Estimates

rameters met without fail, and those were the driving factors in the routing business in the last fiscal. The router industry has been pretty flat and the major change that we saw in the last one year is the demand for routers with 3G features. Enterprises are looking at routers that support features like 3G and inbuilt switching at affordable prices. Edge router solutions with lesser last mile bandwidth costs are the major boosters and these routers also help in the uptake of cloud based solutions. Due to this, there is a demand for devices that handle 3G connectivity, switching, and routing in a single device. The explosion of voice, video, and data devices has led to an increased demand for data bandwidth. Collaboration clearly is the #1 solution from a networking standpoint. Unified communications solutions allow customers to collaborate within their organization, between their functional groups, and communicate more effectively with their partners and customers. This was the trend last year and will continue this year as well, especially within larger companies. UC includes a number of applications all the way from direct voice calls to multichannel voice data communication. The second big area that we are seeing a lot of interest in is data centers. IT is becoming a strategic part of the business strategy for organizations. In order to access the right information at the right time, the data center and technology around the data center are increasingly becoming important.

However this market will continue to remain flat due to integration and optimization of both cost and capability. Ethernet and IP are the most favored layer-2 and -3 technologies used for voice, data, video, and any form of packetized communication requirements. As a result, there is capacity augmentation and upgrades continue to take place at various network points.

Vendor Landscape In the third quarter of the last fiscal, Cisco launched a router, innovated for India and other emerging markets and designed ground up from the country. The product, used in mobile towers, was tailored to meet the constraints—poor power supply, high

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 3,500

real estate costs, and huge growth in fresh subscriber numbers—with which operators functioned. The product also uses a payas-you-grow business model, in which the service provider can opt to pay only for the features that are being used, and as the network and subscriber base grows, enables more features on the product by purchasing software licenses for them. It is still early to conclusively say the product will be a success although the number of enquiries and initial orders are pointing towards it. And in the last 6 months, the router saw huge traction, not among the Indian operators but also from other markets like Japan, Europe, and North America. Around 90 companies are testing or deploying the product by the end of the last fiscal. Similarly, Juniper increased its product portfolio—mostly 3G and 4G enabled—significantly in the wake of demands from the voice, data, and video-driven consumers. Netgear, which is very strong in SOHO and home segment, in this fiscal launched few models that can take 3G as well as 4G dongles. It also started looking at SMB sector more aggressively. In the wireless router category, it remained one of the leaders with close to 10,000 units average sale per month. Its JWNR2000 model in N300 segment grew very fast last fiscal while the WNDR3700 in the N600 segment saw good traction among the highend discerning customers. Juniper Networks’ product portfolio in the 3G and BWA segment saw pretty good traction during the last fiscal. The company’s MX series of routers came out as a clear favorite in this segment.

The Forecast

-9%

1,750 2,970

3,251

2011-12

2010-11

0 V&D Estimates

With BYOD taking long strides in the enterprise arena and the market flooded with lots of portable gadgets that use different media streaming and sharing technologies, data flow is not restricted to any single point of source. And these devices need to be connected. Data transfer to devices like tablet, PMPs, or HDTV from any media streaming devices, wireless has always been the preferred medium and you need routers for that. Gyana Ranjan Swain gyanas@cybermedia.co.in

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Switch

Standstill! The market grew dynamically though it failed to translate into revenues Highlights  Market remained flat  Demand of futuristic products

on rise  Government major consumer of data switching products  Streaming video, voice-over IP, high-end multimedia, medical imaging and other bandwidth intensive applications are major drivers  Ethernet remained driven by its lower cost and ease of administration

he Indian switch market has transformed significantly with a wide adoption of world class IT networks across all verticals. It has matured and the criterion for buying and operation has changed dramatically. Intelligent switches have enabled companies to realize the full benefits of adding intelligent services on to their networks. The availability of 3G and high speed broadband also empowered the SMBs and enterprises to go for more intelligent and futuristic devices that can take on multiple tasks like 3G, 4G, UTM, switching, and routing. However the infrastructure market did not see much growth in terms of minting money. The market has been abuzz about gigabit for some years now. But last year they became more relevant with the rising trend of storing data on network

Market Share

Total Market Size: `4,559 crore

79.51% Cisco

drives and SANs and with the continuous increase of high bandwidth applications in organizations. This availability of new technologies by enterprises held promise for vendors who were being squeezed for margins in their volumes business of unmanaged layer-2 and -3 switches.

Market Dynamics 11.93% HP 1.75% Avaya 1.58% D-Link

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0.94% Dax 4.28% Others V&D Estimates

Ethernet remained driven by its lower cost and ease of administration. Both metro Ethernet and ADSL were largely driving the business last fiscal. Telecom service providers rolling out ADSL networks continued buying the large 10G and IG over Ethernet switches for their broadband deployments. The real push in terms of volumes in the enterprise switching business will come with greater roll out of metro Ethernet networks.

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players Cisco

Revenue (in `crore) FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Change (%)

3,625

3,477

544

495

Avaya

D-Link

Dax

Others

195

168

Total

4,559

4,318

Others Include: Smartlink, Huawei, ZTE, Extreme Networks, Enterasys and LinkQuest V&D Estimates

Large enterprises and service providers increased the demand for managed gigabit switches. They are planning to roll out bandwidth intensive enterprise applications such as data warehousing, with the growing importance of video traffic on internet and enterprise networks. Some of the other drivers of growth were applications such as streaming video, voice-over IP, high-end multimedia, medical imaging, and other bandwidth intensive applications. All these applications threw up demand for gigabit and fast Ethernet switches in low volumes but high value. The importance of gigabit Ethernet continued to increase in the backbone networks and at the server level. It was still early days for gigabit switches at the node level, however the fast Ethernet switches became entrenched with the end users. The 10/100 Mbps ports were routinely bundled with the end nodes. In the data switching market, major revenue is generated from government, retail/wholesale, manufacturing, services, financial, education, and energy verticals apart from the other verticals like healthcare, telecom access, etc. It is the most mature amongst all of the IT infrastructure market in enterprise, SME & SOHO segments and is one of the long-lasting data networks revenue stream. Most of the vendors are more focused on consolidating integrated data networks by implementing infra projects

like R-APDRP, India-NET , RailNET, UIDAadhar, etc. Last year, the switching market focused more on consolidating solutions mainly in enterprise campus core, campus edge, NeGP pan-India connectivity, data centres and industrial data automation. This, in-turn, guided most of the switching vendors like ‘DIGISOL’ to focus on consolidated data communication network for integrating applications. From the government of India perspective, DIT-GoI put more thrust on integrated e-gov applications, common data model for government, and to enable ‘paper less’ offices.

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 5,000

2,500

4,559

4,318

2011-12

2010-11

0 V&D Estimates

The market saw a clear segmentation in terms of 2 types of customers. Those looking for managed layer 4-7 switches, and those graduating from hubs and still did not have very complex requirements. At the higher end of the market, with the continuous increase of manpower in the software companies, demand for switching increased. These companies are already entrenched into the culture of working in a networked environment, and all the new employees have to be connected with high-speed switches to the network’s resources.

Vendor Dynamics Dax’ revenue did not see much growth and remained flat during FY12. However its bottom line was up compared to the previous fiscal. Verticals like BFSI, telecom, and e-gov witnessed maximum growth in the last fiscal. The contracts it got from Maharashtra horizontal connectivity, Tamil Nadu hospital project, and Directorate of technical education contributed maximum to it. Last fiscal has been an eventful year for DIGISOL. The company emerged as a strong player in the data switching market in India due to its end-to-end solution offering and got major wins in government and BFSI segment. It also bagged major projects from BFSI customers like SBI, UCO, HDFC, etc., OFB, Mhow, Kingfisher Villa, Vedanta, UPSC, Allahabad nagar nigam, Aadhar projects, Sarva shiksha abhiyan (SSA) for Gujarat, Karnataka etc, Indian railways, Indian army, DGS&D, educational institutes and university under NKN, Airport automation projects, BIOCON, Netmagic, Syntel, state govt rate contracts like Maharashtra RC and other major NeGP MMP projects. The coming years, it appears, would be more interesting and aggressive with video becoming the major data consumption item for enterprises, SMBs, and SMEs. Verticals like IT services, BFSI, and public sector are expected to bring more momentum to the industry. Gyana Ranjan Swain gyanas@cybermedia.co.in

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Voice Solutions

On an Upswing The industry reports growth due to cloud adoption, open standards, IP Telephony, UC and mobility rich platforms Highlights  Cloud in mainstream with 

  

he voice solutions industry has come up as an attractive destination to invest, following innovative strategies. Because of positive user experiences and heavy promotions by leading carriers and service providers, the demand for affordable and reliable home and small-to-medium business voice solutions has increased. The industry witnessed whooping 15% growth in FY12 with total voice solutions revenue accounting to `2,637 crore in FY12. Moving forward, cloud based voice solutions are likely to define the future of the communications industry in India.

The Growth Saga The industry is growing with the help of server based, open standards, IP telephony, and UC and mobility based platforms. Avaya with 24% market share and revenue going

Market Share (FY 2011-12)

Total Market Size: `2,637 crore

23% Cisco

24% Avaya

22% Alcatel-Lucent

11% Siemens

4% Aastra

7% Panasonic 2%

Coral telecom 3% Matrix Comsec 3% Others

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V&D Estimates

VoicePHP solutions is picking up Video collaboration with open standards like SIP is the next big wave Employment of IP-PBXs will vary according to current investments VoIP applications are already gaining traction Growth in IP telephony has resulted in better voice clarity, reduction in use of cables and integration with communication systems

up from `552 crore in FY11 to `624 crore in FY12 has shown promising growth. In the last fiscal, the company has acquired large enterprise accounts to enhance and showcase its voice solution portfolio. Additionally, it also signed a multi-million dollar deal with Bharti, one of the largest global managed services deals. The company also registered substantial growth with many people shifting from simple voice mail to unified messaging solutions. Second in line comes Cisco with 23% market share in the last fiscal. Next Alcatel-Lucent, which has again shown the expected performance with 15 % growth in FY12. Major hospitality chains have chosen Alcatel’s technology for most of their properties in 2011. The company has delivered IP telephony solutions through room telephones, room automation, and

Voice Solutions

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Avaya

624

552

Cisco

609

544

Alcatel-Lucent

584

508

Siemens

300

257

Panasonic

195

140

Aastra

118

104

Matrix Comsec

Coral Telecom

Others

Total

2,637

2,290

Others: LifeSize, Intelesys, Actis, NEC, and others V&D Estimates

integrating into ecosystem of hospitality technologies and vendors. The latest entrant in the market is Coral Telecom. With negligible market share, the company has already bagged large export orders from a Norway company for niche market products. Another player, Actis, has also recently started its operations in voice solutions. The company is focusing on unified communications and IT telephony in a big way. It has also tied up with Microsoft for the same. According to the company, it has already bagged a few orders, especially in the government sector.

will continue to invest in Internet Protocol (IP) telephony platforms after mapping out telephony’s role in a clear UC strategy. As users’ communication habits evolve, infrastructure and operations leaders need to consider new telephony and UC vendor relationships, as well as the use of managed services, outsourcing, hosted, and cloud based solutions. Employment of IP-PBXs will vary according to current investments, maturity of an organization’s network infrastructure, and incumbent vendor strategy. The industry is viewing VoIP application as

Market Size (in `crore)

Cloud All the Way! The possibilities of more processing power, better applications, faster networks, and reliable data storage are all converging in cloud. Cloud based voice solutions are gaining popularity among businesses as they not only reduce equipment costs, but also ensure greater reliability. These solutions including VoicePHP indicate the rising demand of cloud computing and this technology is expected to have more acceptance in the future. The challenge remains to analyze how businesses can utilize the cloud for their benefits. With users becoming more mobile, organizations have already started moving towards voice over IP acceptability. They

Revenue (FY 2011-12) 3,000

15%

1,500 2,637

2,290

2011-12

2010-11

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V&D Estimates

a potential cost saving technology as its adoption is likely to mitigate enterprises’ operational costs. While IP being accepted as the next wave in communication across all large enterprise segments, a major trend observed is that SMEs are also evaluating this technology and may prove to be a major growth driver in this segment in the short and medium-term. Apart from the growing demand in the enterprise space, the VoIP market has evolved in India. Even the small and medium business segments are also adopting and expanding their VoIP solutions. The ongoing implementation of a fast, IP based cellular infrastructure is constantly dissolving the boundaries and the need for technology solutions to straddle them is also changing. The transformation to purely IP based high speed 4G networks is also yet another innovative change to look forward for.

Emerging Prospects The enterprise voice market includes the provisioning of holistic voice communications for all wired and wireless users. Architectures include distributed on-premises solutions as well as centralized, virtualized, and hosted platforms which are essentially dedicated for use by a single organization. The increasing trend towards audiovideo integration in boardrooms with the help of open standards such as SIP, will be the next big wave. Convergence, leading to adoption of IP telephony with open standards by SMBs, increases demand for mobility solutions like fixed mobile convergence and growth in key verticals like infrastructure and telecom, the key factors driving voice solutions market in India. The SME sector has begun to widely adopt IT voice systems due to the cost advantage and appealing products. Along with SME adoption, the growth of unified communications has been very critical for the industry’s growth. The growth of IT telephony has resulted in better voice clarity, integration with other communication systems, reduction in the use of cables, flexibility in use, and is also much more economical. Akanksha Singh akankshas@cyberemdia.co.in

WLAN

Up...Up and Higher! Thanks to mass adoption of smart mobile devices and BYOD, the wireless LAN industry is on cloud 9 Highlights  Hospitality, education, retail   



he wireless LAN sector is in high spirits as there is no turning back for the players showing impressive growth in the last fiscal with impeccable 22% growth. And all thanks to mobility and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), the industry has picked up what seems like a never ending momentum and its revenues skyrocketed from `419 crore in FY11 to `510 crore in FY12.

Market Share

Total Market Size: `510 crore

37.1% Cisco 24.1% Others 16.1% Ruckus Wireless

Topnotchers The increase in demand of devices with Wi-Fi, high bandwidth, and triple play capabilities at low costs are only a few to mention for the industry’s success. Wi-Fi is considered as one of the most cost effective and high bandwidth technology solution for its subscribers by Telcos and MSO.

9.4% Aruba Networks 8.2% D-Link 5.1% Netgear

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V&D Estimates

sectors are fast adopters Mobility and BYOD is fueling growth of the sector IEEE 802.11n standard will support industry’s demand Cloud, VoWLAN, 3G, HSxPA, EVDO, and TD-WCDMA technologies are growth drivers MIMO(Multiple Input Multiple Output), packet aggregation and channel bonding are three primary innovations propelling growth

In command is Cisco with impressive 37% market share and has shown growth of 21% in FY12. Ruckus Wireless is the second in line which has grown aggressively in the last fiscal. Ruckus grew 30.2% in FY12 with its total WLAN revenue accounting to `82 crore. It has hospitality, education, and healthcare as its largest contributors in terms of revenue. Moreover, the company has been involved in many other major projects including the deployment of wireless LAN at Mumbai airport, Delhi University, Oberoi Hotels, Delhi Airport Metro, and YOU Broadband. Aruba Networks third in league showed significant growth of 50% in FY12 and attained 9.4% of the total market share. D-Link grew 40% from FY11 in this fiscal whereas Netgear attained 36.8% growth in FY12. The influx of smart mobile

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Cisco

189

156

Ruckus Wireless

Aruba Networks

D-Link

Netgear

Others

123

119

Total

510

419

22.0

Others include: Dax Networks, Digisol, Allied Telesis, Proxim, Belkin, Juniper and others V&D Estimates

devices and the continued proliferation of high performance 802.11n network are driving enterprises to upgrade and replace the existing wireless infrastructure. Mobility has played a very important role in driving the growth of WLAN. Now BYOD will further emphasize on the necessity of Wi-Fi as the most cost effective, secured, and reliable technology. This boom is being fueled by the escalating sales of smartphones and tablets.

Future Trends WLAN industry has seen various segments adopting WLAN. Education and hospitality have been the largest contributors in its growth in the country. Even the healthcare sector has started adopting WLAN. So, the market for WLAN continues to grow as new wireless standards enhancing performance, reliability, and security are put in place. Most enterprises have opted for WLAN or intend to deploy 802.11n based WLAN. Success in selecting a WLAN hinges largely on how well it integrates with the existing environment. Enterprises and campuses want to deploy enterprise-class wireless networks that offer simple and secured mobile services such as guest access, VoWLAN, location aware, and other security features. As companies seek wireless solutions to gain a competitive edge, Wi-Fi applications on the manufacturing shop floor in warehouses and points-of-sale

will drive faster and more accurate transactions. Enterprise mobility has also emerged as one of the key priorities for CIOs and IT managers across all geographies, and the growth of WLAN market is a clear testament to the market dynamics. Today with 11n, Wi-Fi is considered very reliable and is capable of managing high density BYOD challenges. CXOs have realized that it is the most cost-effective solution which is not only reliable but also provide high bandwidths and takes care of security. The latest trend is the addition of VoIP technology to wireless networks (VoWLAN). Adoption of this technology

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 600

22%

300 510

419

2011-12

2010-11

0 V&D Estimates

helps in reducing costs effectively through collaboration. Also, the collaboration between RFID and wireless is leading to new mobility applications and solutions for industry segments like manufacturing, retail, and healthcare. The WLAN technology is in a constant state of development due to the introduction of various standards as well as security measures. The wireless LAN technology has evolved rapidly in the recent years with 802.11n standards. The industry has also adopted the 802.1x secure authentication framework. This system enables users to authenticate and encrypt data traffic on the wireless medium. Another emerging technology in this segment is IEEE 802.11n. This solution will operate in the 2.4 and 5 GHz radio bandwidths, offering backward compatibility with pre-existing 802.11a/b/g deployments. Wireless solutions based on the 802.11n standard employ several techniques to improve the throughput, reliability, and predictability of wireless LANs. The 3 primary innovations which have further improved the growth are MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology, packet aggregations, and channel bonding. Together these techniques allow 802.11n solutions to achieve an approximate 5-fold performance increase over the current 802.11a/b/g. Today, IEEE 802.11n, 3G, HSxPA, EVDO, and TD-WCDMA are some of the technologies that vendors are adopting in India for a complete solution. The cloud, on the other hand, is another major growth driver. Devices and services and software are becoming more integrated with each other, and accessibility on the go is gaining popularity. There is going to be more public WLAN access providers (hot spot) with data roaming agreements and different service providers. Users get flexibility to roam with any WLAN access provider, while being customer of one service provider of his/her choice. Akanksha Singh akankshas@cyberemdia.co.in

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Structured Cabling

Gain, with Pain! The market for structured cabling is tricky, with a lot of potential but enough roadblocks too

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Structured Cabling

Highlights Did not meet the growth expectations Sluggish due to the fear of recession and rupee depreciation Cash flow was dull since July 2011 OEMs are facing tough times in meeting the price expectations vis-a-vis margins trade off  Data center implementations have gathered huge momentum    

tructured cabling market had re-couped completely in the last fiscal (FY11) from the global recession in 2009 and 2010. Infact, it had a double digit growth but from the last 2 quarters the industry has slowed down and it is not meeting the growth expectations of the cabling vendors. This sluggish growth is because of the fear of recession and rupee depreciation. And this fear has made corporates even more cautious and they are holding back on investments. Cash flow was dull since July, and the market is only slightly getting back on track since February 2012. Let us now move on to the market size of structured cabling in FY12—the market grew at a growth rate of 20.29% to reach Rs 1,577 crore in FY12 as compared to the previous fiscal, FY11.

TE Connectivity (Prior Tyco Electronics) The industry witnessed a strategic acquisition of ADC Communications by Tyco Electronics in December 2010 and the company was renamed as TE Connectivity. In the first 2 quarters of FY12, the company had a very slow growth as it was grappling with the integration process. But the growth gained momentum in the third and fourth quarters. And most of the accounts of ADC Communications fell into the piggy bag of TE Connectivity. The company intends to keep the product ranges of both Tyco and ADC as a separate entity as this would help them to address both the cost-sensitive and the

high-end technology conscious customers. ADC’s wireless segment has been a value addition to TE and its products and solutions for telecom vertical complement the Tyco’s product portfolio. TE is strong in verticals such as IT/ITeS, telecom data centers, and BFSI and now ADC has added its strong verticals including government and education. TE Connectivity has delivered to 800 customers, both direct and indirect, in FY12. Its customer base includes Capgemini, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Bharti airtel, Tata Teleservices, Axis Bank, Barclays, and Reserve Bank of India. The telecom business of the company has performed considerably well. In the past 6 months, it has worked on FTTH projects for over 40,000

Market Share

Total Market Size: `1,577 crore

29.8% TE Connectivity

19.7% Commscope 11.8% Digilink by Schneider 9.9% Molex 6.6% R&M 4.4% Panduit

9.4% Others

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4.6% D-Link

3.8% Belden

V&D Estimates

Industy consensus that whole supply chain is under pressure. There is a severe shortage of quality system integrators in the market homes. It has provided GPON solutions to 5-star hotels across the country.

Digilink’s Acquisition by Schneider Electric Again, the acquisition proved significant for Digilink. The company has primarily focused on the Indian market and now got an access to international market as well to a larger extent. Schneider Electric is promoting Digilink in Middle East, Europe, and other countries. Schneider Electric is not a very prominent player in India but has got a major market share through this acquisition. The other acquisitions by Schneider Electric such as APC (2007), APW President Systems in May 2011, and Luminous in April 2011 have also given an edge. Schneider is competent to address the market with a complete portfolio; it is one step ahead by providing cabling solutions, power solutions, racks, etc, under one roof.

CommScope CommScope has refocused on certain critical areas of business such as logistics, sales, marketing, channel partners, and business processes. It has now resolved its indifferent supply chain. Its major clientele includes Seven Hills hospital, United Commission Bank in Bangladesh, and Sri Lankan airlines amongst others. The company has IT/ITeS as one of its major

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Structured Cabling

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

TE Connectivity

470

440

Commscope

311

230

Digilink by Schneider

186

150

Molex

156

120

R&M

104

D-Link

Panduit

Belden

Others

148

115

Total

1,577

1,311

Others include: 3M, Belkin, Dax Networks, Hubbel, Leviton, Siemon, Sterlite Technologies V&D Estimates

verticals and has presence in tier-1 cities. It also intends to expand into tier-2 and -3 cities. On technology front, it will focus more on category 6 and 6a installations, intelligent cabling, and on safety technologies like low smoke halogen.

R&M R&M products and solutions are used across a myriad of sectors like telecom, IT/ITeS, manufacturing, BFSI, education, automotive, etc, to name a few. R&M has added regional distributors in the west of India along with the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In FY12 the company, provided embedded infrastructure to the college campuses and also bagged deals in retail and hospitality sectors.

Dax Networks FY12 was a dull year for Dax Networks as its cabling business had nil growth. The key growth verticals of Dax Networks include government, telecom, and BFSI. Small and medium enterprise (SME) segment is going to be a thrust space for the company this year. The company states that its revenue on cabling has not met the expectations because of several factors including the fluctuation in copper prices and the steep rise in dollar. Its key projects include Manappuram Group, ELCOT, and SSA (Sarva Skisha Abhayan).

Panduit This fiscal, Panduit had been making noise in the Indian cabling industry. The company has gone through some changes and is planning to invest on human resource. It is also likely to invest in new offices, customer briefing centers, and marketing activities. The company has also bagged a deal from Tulip Telecom to provide cabling solutions to Tulipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s data center in Bengaluru, the third largest data center in Asia. The company has opened Customer Briefing Center (CBC) in Bengaluru to showcase its wide range

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 2,000

20%

of products to its customers and channel partners. It plans to set up CBC in Asia Pacific region as well.

Leviton In its third year of operations, Leviton has tripled the headcount at present. The key revenue driving verticals for the company include infrastructure, IT/ITeS, government, education, and data centers. Its key customers include Bengaluru international airport, University of Hyderabad, NTT, WNS, Omega healthcare, etc. It has launched offices in Kolkata, Pune, and Hyderabad. It also intends to focus heavily on data centers and large enterprises. The prominent products of the company are 40/100G Ethernet on fiber MTP, retention force technology, high density plug, play solution, etc.

3M Within 2 years of operations in India, 3M has a huge of growth. Two huge deals have contributed immensely to it. The company has offered cabling solutions to Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) It has installed cabling solutions at Pune campus. It plans to focus on tier-1 cities at present and aims to hit $10 mn in India by 2015. 3M has a customer base across the industry viz IT/ ITeS and transportation sector with their biggest installation in the IT/ITeS space.

Belden Belden is betting big on emerging markets and its prominent markets include India, Brazil, and China. It is focusing on high growth end markets namely transportation systems, alternative energy, data centers, oil and gas, and broadcast. The company is growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25% in BIC nations.

Belkin 1,000 1,577

1,311

2011-12

2010-11

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V&D Estimates

Belkin has posted a revenue of `150 crore in 2011, with a growth rate of 60% in 2011 over 2010. It seems that the company is reinforcing its strength. Between October 2010 and September 2012, Belkin India aims to target sales of `250 crore. In September 2011, Belkin entered into an agreement with BrightPoint India as its national distributor.

www.panduit.com/india +91 80 49122106

Structured Cabling

D-Link Along with the government, the key growth verticals for D-Link structured cabling solutions have been education, manufacturing, hospitality, and the retail segment. In addition to this, railways and court projects will be the growth drivers along with BFSI, data centers, and disaster recovery (DR) centers. The company has expanded into international market such as Middle East, Russia, and Africa. D-Link has bagged Goa broadband project (GBBN) which was one of the biggest projects rolled out in India for passive products along with a lot of DLink active products.

Growth Drivers Advanced cabling systems are now being demanded in India and newer technologies are being adopted. There is a huge acceptance of Cat 6A deployments which meet higher bandwidth needs in data centers as well as at work stations. The SMB and residential and commercial complexes are also the key drivers for growth. There has been a shift towards

converged networks and fiber. In a new township, enterprise and telcos are getting intertwined to offer the best converged network solutions to the end users. Data center implementations have gathered huge momentum. FTTX/ FTTH is another major driver for structured cabling business in the country. Higher performing connecting devices replaced legacy supplies. Growth drivers in structured cabling have remained same since 2003 such as the growth in the software exports, exponential growth in IT-enabled services, government initiatives to enhance IT deployment across various departments, growth in BFSI segment, higher deployments in educational institutions, hospitality, retail, and manufacturing. After healthcare, government is the second largest sector, with an 11.8% share, followed by retail sector with 11.6% share. Other leading sectors include professional and technical services at 8.7% share and manufacturing with a share of 8.4%. These 5 vertical sectors account for more than half the SCS market and

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are expected to continue with a positive growth till 2015. Earlier, the tier-1 cities were the high revenue earners, but now new opportunities are being thrown open by tier-2 and -3 cities viz, Coimbatore, Cochin, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Puducherry, Mysore, etc. The mid-sized market has picked up, despite its price sensitivity, because of the industry verticalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2022;IT and ITeS, BPO, BFSI, PSUs, government, healthcare, SoHo, and residential. These drivers will roll out in a positive growth curve for the market. The data center cabling market is poised to grow several times and is expected to drive the potential market for Cat 6A and above. In addition, FTTH deployment is also projected to grow multiple times in the near future. Emerging markets like the tier-2 and -3 cities and verticals like manufacturing, IT/ITeS, and hospitality are expanding. Data centers in India are booming. We will see more and more data centers coming in the future with green facilities. With this, there has been a growing need to deploy faster and secure cabling systems in data centers and even horizontal cabling. The boom in data centers has also led to increased deployment of high-end systems. The need of IT-enabled services is growing at a faster pace in this country which is fueling the growth of structured cabling market. Another trend has been of the technology buyer shifting towards addressing their large scale and vast location applications using Intelligent Physical Layer Management Solution (IPLMS). Plug and play solutions are also gaining preference as they are easier to install and manage. Increasing security requirements for sophisticated networks crave for intelligent networks which can locate and identify physical intrusion. Collaboration via unified communications and video is also driving the cabling market to handle bandwidth hungry application. Customers are demanding intelligent cabling solutions because traditional network management tools offer limited value because information through these is collected manually. But the manual process is time consuming, sometimes inaccurate, and can prove to be costly in

terms of money, man hours and network downtime. The intelligent infrastructure management system allows easy planning and detection of MACâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s while maintaining accurate records for handling help desk tasks. The solution offers features that help to trace all devices connected to the network and in mapping and documentation of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;end-to-endâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; physical infrastructure. It helps in monitoring all connections and events. The automatic log reports, alarms, and alerts generated by the system in case of changes and/ or disruptions in the network, allow network managers to detect and trouble shoot problems much faster. Asset and configuration management teams can also optimize their processes and tools by using system derived real-time connectivity information to locate assets for audit or upgrade purposes, establish the potential impact of the loss of a network device or to establish departmental usage of network assets for recharge purposes. Security, facilities, network availability, continuity management teams, and processes can all benefit from the information derived from the system. It naturally follows that more the work-streams and processes that are aligned to intelligent cabling system, the more savings can be realized thus creating better RoI. The key drivers for growth in the structured cabling market in recent years were in commercial real estate, airports, hospitals, hotels, malls, and educational institutes. Other segments supporting the growth are IT/ITeS, BPO, KPO, and government projects. There is a shift towards converged networks and fiber, which plays a significant role in converged technologies. This trend is catching up in new township networks where enterprises as well as telecom networks are getting collapsed to offer the best converged networks. Fiber-to-the-home is another trend which is increasingly being proposed in new realty projects. Cabling industry is consolidating and is seeing more copper and fiber deployments in manufacturing industry, hospitality, health, and government. More townships will have fiber-to-the-home concept deployed and with security taking importance, there will be lot of solutions on perimeter security being deployed in offices, factories, and townships.

Technological Trends At present, most of the cabling vendors have quit category 5 manufacturing. Currently, category 5e is widely installed across India than any other cabling infrastructure. Category 6a operates at a frequency of 550 MHz and is backward compatible with the existing standards. This technology is suitable for industry sectors utilizing high performance computing platforms to support very high bandwidth intensive applications. 10G/Cat 6a applications would initially be deployed in server farms, storage area networks, and data centers. It supports 10G. Currently, most organizations are migrating either to Cat 6 or 6a, based on the applications required in India. However uptake of Cat 6a is still slow and in pockets mainly in financial sector. Cat 6a is the evolution of UTP cabling to support 10G or more bandwidth when compared to Cat 6. We hardly see any difference between Cat 6a and Cat 7. Moreover, Cat 7 is likely to have A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JUNE 2012 | VOICE&DATA | 113

Structured Cabling

a natural death as it is unadaptable, have issues in installation and cables ought to be re-pulled. Category 7a is known to operate at 1,000 MHz, but it is yet to be ratified. It is at a very nascent stage. Cat 6A will see an increased deployment as it is in line with the growth in sectors such as data centers. Also, end customers are future proofing critical parts of the network such as their storage, server farms, and backbone with latest technology. Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) cabling is generally in use for residential environments and is largely refrained when it comes to commercial environments. Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) is cheaper, and therefore more common, since the shielding from electromagnetic radiation is not generally needed. There are circumstances under which STP is beneficial or required. Specifically, steel mills generally use shielded cabling (or optical, where possible) because of the massive currents in use, which play havoc with the signal in a traditional UTP Ethernet cable. Intelligent cabling has stolen the show of late. IT managers are demanding intelligent cabling as it enables proactive network monitoring and fault diagnosis. It is more efficient, reduces costs, and resolves issues like unplanned downtime, inefficient manual moves, reliability, redundancy, additions and changes, redundant ports, and inaccurate records. It will provide real-time management of the physical layer. Having an intelligent cabling solution enables an immediate rectification, as this system can indicate where exactly the network is experiencing problems. It can track IP based addresses and the network manager can access, control, and manage them from one central location, thereby troubleshooting them remotely. Fiber is primarily used for backbone applications and despite its improved viability as a fibre-to-the-desk solution, the cost of active equipment is still stagnant. Increased use of fiber connectivity particularly, factory terminated plug-and-play fiber solutions, can be attributed primarily to the data center applications where the density is critical. Multimode (50/125, 62.5/125um) OM1, OM2, and OM3, Single mode (9/125um) in fiber category

There is a shift towards converged networks and fiber, which plays a significant role in converged technologies.This trend is catching up in new township networks where enterprise as well as telecom networks are getting collapsed to offer the best converged networks are ruling. OM4 fiber cabling was seen last year in parts. OM3 fiber cabling is gradually picking up and plug-and-play copper and fiber solutions have been employed in key installations. Outdoor plant fiber cabling also saw an increase in usage last year. OS2 (Low Water Peak Fiber-G652.d) is the standard for most deployments. OM4 in multi-mode technology will see increased deployment to support 40G and 100G applications. Fiber requirement has gone up to address campus networking situations. Fiber optics has an advantage of being immune to electromagnetic interference. It uses less power and provides less signal degradation than copper cables. Fiber cables are generally non-flammable and virtually unable to be tapped. It is also of smaller diameter and is of less weigh than its copper counterpart, making it ideal for a variety of cabling solutions. Fiber optics has always been the preferred choice for backbone cabling in buildings and campuses. The cable costs much less to maintain and offers greater signal capacity. The fiber optic cableâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s smaller diameter also makes it impervious to interference, with a much lower transmission loss.

Market Crisis The growth of business in all verticals is directly proportional to the growth of structured cabling market. The doldrums in Europe and the US have impacted the market to a certain extent. A rise in dollar has also affected the industry. OEMS are facing tough times in meeting the price expectations vis-a-vis margins trade off. Further reduction in prices would be difficult for the players considering steep

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rise in dollar. Most of the OEMs are not based in India; as they import, thereby increasing the cost of material which ultimately results in higher cost of ownership. Several organizations are reducing capital expenses (capex). Telecom is one of the strongest verticals for structured cabling market. But its contribution is relatively low. Government is also slowing down but not finalizing any decisions. Liquidity has also impacted the industry. Industry consensus states that whole supply chain is under pressure. There is a severe shortage of quality system integrators in the market. Due to the growth in fiber-to-the-home, fiber-to-the-premises, fiber-to-the-building, etc, employees of structured cabling are being absorbed. The cabling industry in India does not have any set guidelines. It follows TIA/EIA 568B and other ISO standards. The market is extremely fragmented and competitive. It tends to push price down. Cable price is derived from competition, the price of copper at MCX, LME, and exchange rate fluctuations. It is approximately 50% of the BOM in projects. Industry is also facing problems in shipment. Manufacturers are primarily concerned with the fluctuations in copper prices and foreign currency. The prevailing low sentiments in the market coupled with the fixed price contracts, which most large projects are heading too, are the major challenges OEMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in India are facing. It is difficult to resolve this as most customers are using this to mitigate their risks and push OEMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s amongst themselves. Malini N malinin@cybermedia.co.in

Audio-Video

Conferencing

Audio-video Conferencing

The New Real

The rise in enterprise mobility, penetration of smart devices, and proliferation of 3G has presented a new dimension for AV conferencing Highlights  Facilitates fast and easy   



rom the early days of not-sorich, plain vanilla segment, the audio-video conferencing segment market today has grabbed its place as one of the most cash rich segments of the telecom industry. A testament to this is its last year’s performance. This year too VOICE&DATA made some revisions in last year’s figures to came up with the consolidated growth and the top grossers of the segment. According to Voice&Data estimates, the audio video conferencing industry grew by 16% to register `391 crore in FY 2011-12 compared to `337 crore in FY 2010-11. Making it to the top was Polycom. The company made quite a few announcements in the fiscal like RealPresence Mobile, the first enterprise HD video software solution for tablets, high-quality

Market Share

Total Market Size: `391 crore

49% Polycom

30% Cisco

9% Lifesize 6% Radvision 6% Others

116 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

V&D Estimates

collaboration Enterprises are accepting the technology with open arms Virtualization is reshaping the desktop-server relationship Drawbacks are high cost required for set up and reluctance in making business decisions on a conference call Government, healthcare, education, and enterprise verticals are rapidly adopting VC services

visual communications solutions enabling ease-of-use and adhering to best-of-breed open standards, which allows it to partner with the Polycom Open Collaboration Network Partners (POCN) such as Microsoft, IBM, HP, Avaya, Juniper, Broadsoft, McAfee, and Siemens and the launch of Polycom RealPresence cloud. The company’s RealPresence platform is being used by airtel to deliver VaaS solutions to SMBs and enterprises throughout India. The company kept on focusing on mobility, enterprises, and small-medium businesses. The company also focused on flexibility and brought out products that were of open standards and interoperable—this added to the portfolio of the products. Following Polycom was Cisco. The company has maintained its extensive deployments in IT/ITeS, BFSI, manufacturing,

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Audio-video Conferencing

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Polycom

192

160

Cisco

118

105

Lifesize

Radvision

Others

Total

391

337

Others include: Intellisys, Actis and others V&D Estimates

and other verticals. Its telepresence business has flourished to provide customers with access to an integrated architecture, a comprehensive network based endpoint, and infrastructure portfolio. The third company in the list was LifeSize. The company that is the manufacturer of videoconferencing in the world to provide mobility, cloud computing, and virtualized platforms in India is bullish on SMBs and enterprise market through the power of products like UVC platform. Focusing on integrating conferencing, Avaya’s planned acquisition of RADVISION, announced in March 2012, also created a compelling and differentiated solution designed to accelerate the adoption of video collaboration. The acquisition is expected to close during Q3 FY12, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. The standout deal for Avaya in the recent months was the 20-country communications outsourcing services agreement with airtel which was announced in March. This deal is designed to deliver customer service excellence to airtel customers across South Asia and Africa. Orange has expanded the telepresence community, its B2B telepresence solution, through interoperability agreements with various major players like AT&T, BT, Verizon, and Tata Communications.

drivers of the communications industry today is the business need for seamless, instantaneous, and cost-effective mobility. With an escalating number of smart devices in the market, there is also an equal demand for creation of a smart ecosystem that fosters the integration of real-time communication services, thereby delivering value to the end consumer or enterprise. The growth driver of this industry is the mission critical need for enterprises to remain agile in the tough competitive environment. Conferencing solutions allow organizations to bring key people together that are geographically dispersed into a single conference, to facilitate discussions, ideas, and decision-making.

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 400

16%

200 391

337

2011-12

2010-11

Dynamics The reasons for the impressive y-o-y performance by the audio-video segment are easy to anticipate. One of the biggest

118 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

V&D Estimates

This helps reduce the time and cost associated with traveling. Additionally, less travel increases employee productivity by making employees more available for other meetings. Rise in enterprise mobility, proliferation of 3G, high penetration of smart devices, and the growing young population are playing a major role in the uptake of the AV conferencing market in the country.

Roadblocks The constant challenge with video is ensuring that the infrastructure can keep up with the demand. In an enterprise context, you cannot simply add videoconferencing for all—from desktops or mobiles—without looking at your network and how it will support that. Having the right communications core—which supports multiple vendors, is device agnostic, supports open standards and interfaces, and is reliable and scalable to grow with your business—are all important considerations. Talking about the technology in the interiors of the country still remains the untouched part of the segment. Pricing still remains a major issue as most conferencing deployments are quite expensive. Even though prices have been slashed globally for SMBs to adopt this solution, it is still an issue. Consistency of bandwidth is another issue. Reliable bandwidth is of prime importance for an immersive experience. Need for real-time applications is the need of the hour for managing the converged infrastructure.

Greener Meadows With the government, healthcare, education, and enterprise verticals rapidly adopting the services, av conferencing has a long way to go. Small and medium sized enterprises are also going for diversified offerings which helps the SMEs stay neckto-neck in competition with the bigger enterprises. With the idea of ‘working from home’ gaining popularity, the deployment of audio-video conferencing solutions is on the rise and increasingly becoming a must-have. Ritu Singh ritus@cybermedia.co.in

Network Integration

In Turbulent Times

The slowdown in major verticals like telecom and govt. took a toll Highlights  Industry suffered big time  Slowdown in project finalization

impacted growth  Govt & telecom pulled back growth momentum  BFSI and ITeS biggest growth drivers  Equipment vendors and connectivity service providers have greater clout than the integrators

nterprises always look for the right kind of applications, processes, and resources when it comes to making a reliable and robust infrastructure at minimal cost. And as enterprises grow, there is an upsurge in demand to manage network and network related issues, and network integration plays an important role here. Though most of the enterprises go for outsourcing their services as it helps them to concentrate on their core competencies—selecting the right partner is still a key issue for them. Integration services offer customers several unique benefits in addition to cost savings. The suite of services efficiently merges data, voice, and video communications over frame relay, and ATM/internet protocol networks. This provides customers a single point of network control with fewer points of failure, a simplified network

Market Share (FY 2011-12) Total Market Size: `5,962 crore

26.35% Wipro Infotech 33.71% Others

18.37% HCL Infosystems 18.43% Datacraft

3.14% Tulip

122 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

V&D Estimates

topology, remote dial-up capabilities, and internet access. Integration services are expandable as the communication needs of a business changes, and customers can rely on experts that have expertise in voice applications, LANs, and WANs to establish and support their integrated networks. The integration services accommodate all of a business’ central site, branch office, and remote access demands in one complete suite. Integrators try to deliver value by planning and building infrastructure solutions, connecting organizations, people, and systems. The networking integration skills, project management capabilities, and knowledge enhance control over end-toend business process transformation and a multi-vendor network infrastructure while improving productivity, reducing complexity, and strengthening RoI.

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Wipro Infotech

1,571

1,411

HCL Infosystems

1,095

1,209

-9

Datacraft

1,099

1,123

-2

187

210

-11

Others

2,010

1,920

Total

5,962

5,873

Tulip

Others Include: SAI infosystems, HP, IBM, and Ramco V&D Estimates

Market Dynamics Network integration industry witnessed a collateral damage in the last fiscal as most of the driving verticals saw a drastic slowdown and enterprises took every step with utmost caution. Big spenders like telecom and government delayed their project rollouts for indefinite period, other major sectors like BFSI and ITES did not come out with many large orders, and in total, it took a huge toll on the network integration industry. The technology for the enterprise and service industry in India is moving towards total convergence of voice, data, video, and security. Compliance, multi-protocol label switching, unified communications, and data centers are the new trends of the day. Collaboration is one of the major market trends. Today’s business users really want more effective communications. They need information control and unified technology solutions. Collaboration represents the presence of information of

the end-user, single source of data, voice and video, and flexibility to use multiple devices seamlessly and simplified application access. Hence collaboration results in applications that enable user controlled productivity anywhere, anytime with any device either wired or wireless.

Vendor Dynamics The top vendors in the NI space behaved the same way this fiscal as they had done a year ago. They did not see much traction in any of the industry verticals and the traditional key verticals like BFSI and ITeS just stretched little far and kept the industry moving. Almost all players like Wipro, HCL, and Tulip failed to match their projections. The growth of the players came down to

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 6,000

3,000 5,962

5,873

2011-12

2010-11

H TSTOP of Indian IT.

V&D Estimates

half compared to the previous financial year. Among vendors, Wipro grabbed some key projects in BFSI and ITeS, however it saw a dip in orders coming from telecom and government, though it bagged a data center order for the UID project.

What Lies In the Future The SME market is big for vendors since the networking technology has now become affordable—routers, switches, and wireless security products are available at affordable prices. The products designed for SME are easy to use and don’t need too much technical expertise. No doubt, the SME segment would be the key focus area for us in the coming times. The concept of end-to-end or one-stop solution providers is gaining momentum. It saves the frustration of working with multiple partners and the NI is able to offer a total suite of related solutions. The NI has become the single point of contact and customizes the right and related technologies to offer an entire solution kit that addresses the business requirement and the full networking life-cycle. The demand has been for vendors who can provide equipment as well as the applications to run on them. With the rapid growth of broadband, it is expected that DSL broadband will be the real leader in terms of technologies and VAS; high-speed internet with VoIP and IPTV combination will actually drive the business. Overall, there is a huge potential for network integration with respect to internet activities. Defense, government, BFSI, service providers, and ITeS still continue to be the key contributors to the growth. Other major contributors include cafeteria, malls, railway stations, e-gov, apartments, hotels, multi-location organized retail stores, and data centers. There are huge plans to build new airports, ports, SEZs which would fuel the demand for IT. Though the Indian market has witnessed steady growth, there are many irritants that need to be removed. In the current scenario, equipment vendors and connectivity service providers have greater clout in the market than the integrators. Gyana Ranjan Swain gyanas@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JUNE 2012 | VOICE&DATA | 123

Network Storage

Building Efficiency Storage is one of the few fast growing and profitable segments in the ICT industry Highlights  Storage is one of the strategic

investment priorities for midsized companies  Virtualization, web 2.0, cloud storage, and ERP/CRM adoption are the key trends in the storage market  Enterprises will focus on the efficient utilization of storage capacity, data protection, and back-up strategies  Big data has quadrupled the storage needs

ata, which was generated in a few kilobytes earlier, is now being generated both by enterprises and consumers and is having huge growth. It is moving at a speed of terabyte, petabyte, exabyte and, by the next 5 years, it is likely to accelerate to zettabyte or yottabyte. The data deluge, accounting from collaborative networks, systems of records, personal devices/mobility, and audio and video has created an acute need for backup, restore, and disaster recovery. Hence storage vendors have no dearth of opportunities for growth. Storage is one of the few fast growing and profitable segments in the ICT industry. The market size of storage in India in fiscal 201112 is pegged at `1,645 crore compared to the previous fiscal, which stood at `1,587 crore. Despite the huge opportunities, storage market is yet to reap the benefits

Market Share

Total Market Size: `1,645 crore

25.5% EMC

23.4% IBM 11.1% HP 9.8% NetApp

7.3% Symantec 7.1% Oracle 4% Others

124 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

8.2% HDS 3.6% Dell

V&D Estimates

to the fullest in India and the market had a flat growth rate of 3.7% in FY12.

Trends Virtualization, web 2.0, and ERP/CRM adoption are the key trends in the storage 1645 market.1587 Productivity software like MS Exchange, Oracle, SQL will further increase demand for storage. Growing demand for surveillance data is another big demand creator for storage. Data storage products and solutions allow organizations to retain and manage rapidly growing multifaceted volumes of digital information and address critical client requirements for information retention and archiving, data de-duplication, availability and virtualization, security and compliance, etc. Industry consensus is that trends like storage efficiency, consolidation to convergence and transparency will pick up. There

Growth Drivers

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

EMC

419

388

IBM

385

332

183

197

-7

NetApp

160

158

Symantec

120

129

-7

HDS

135

118

Oracle

118

113

Dell

Others

107

-39

Total

1,645

1,587

Others include: CA Technologies, CommVault, Fujitsu, Microsoft, Red Hat, and VMware V&D Estimates

is a greater focus on storage efficiency technologies such as storage virtualization, dynamic or thin provisioning, dynamic tiering and archiving are picking up immensely. Consolidation will give way to convergence. Over the past few years, IT has focused on consolidation and much of the low-hanging fruit has now been consolidated. In order to gain further cost savings, the focus will be on convergence of server, storage, networks, and applications. Cloud storage is one of the trends. As more cloud based storage solutions are being available, the foreseeable challenges to be faced by both vendors and customers are: Whether enterprise customers have adequate broadband infrastructure for cloud based storage applications; factors that justify the need to

move data to cloud storage; data security measures; and the extra cost needed after moving into cloud. Applications and infrastructure will be more transparent with each other in order to facilitate convergence through open interfaces like APIs, client/providers, and plugins. Two key areas that would be critical to the growth of big enterprises as well as SME businesses are cloud computing and moving into the era of big data. And all storage vendors are focusing on these. Moving forward most organizations will use a combination of internal and external

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 2,000

1,000

Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s RECORD BREAKING Smash Hit!

1,645

1,587

2011-12

2010-11

0 V&D Estimates

Network attached storage devices (NAS) is gaining significant importance because users not only want a centralized way to store multimedia and other data, but they also want easy ways to share, stream, and remotely access that content. NAS manufacturers see huge opportunities in the storage market, the reason being the rising awareness about data security among SMB customers. The key verticals driving the Indian NAS market would be: Engineering design, high performance computing, offshore development, web services, digital animation. In the recent years, big data has quadrupled the storage needs. There is a high growth from unstructured data, replicated data, and structured data. Organizations are accelerating storage investment to catch up with the fast growing capacity and performance requirements, and using advanced technologies to improve storage efficiency and address the complexity issues.

Market Outlook In comparison to the developed markets, India is relatively small. But there are massive opportunities as there are no legacy investments and the opportunity to introduce new, innovative technologies are huge. Storage is going to be a strategic investment priority for mid-sized companies. Large and small enterprises are facing the biggest hardware infrastructure challenge due to the data growth. Companies are relying too heavily on hardware upgrades to support continued data growth. Achieving the high performance required to support emerging applications while at the same time scaling industry-standard protocols are the key challenges the organizations are facing today. Storage investment can be best optimized by managing information and data based on its lifecycleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;creation, use, reference, preservation, and deletion. In order to ensure data availability, data security, ongoing business continuity, the enterprises need to build mechanisms of data backup and recovery that ensures seamless operation even in the event of system failures or disasters. Malini N malinin@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JUNE 2012 | VOICE&DATA | 125

Network Security

Making a Steady Impact Security threats are evolving parallely with the onset of newer and advanced technologies—a heads-up for the security market

Highlights  Adoption of enterprise social

networking tools skyrockets; security for these is likely to fuel innovation and product growth  RBI’s mandate is also forcing banks to follow its guidelines on information security  It is crucial for Indian businesses to be proactive on mitigating security attacks/threats  Security threats are evolving parallely with the newer and advanced technologies

s the world of communication evolves, the most precious thing is information. A day might come when countries may have cyber wars. As compared to a decade ago, there is a rising concern and awareness about security and this is keeping the security wheel running smoothly. Industry stalwarts’ say the market witnessed considerable growth even when the economy was weak. This year, although there was depreciation of Indian currency (which is phenomenally low as compared to any other place in the world), yet many companies did not lose deals. Nevertheless, the deal sizes shrunk for many security players.

Industry Trends Both consumers and enterprises have increased the purchase of multiple secu-

rity tools such as antivirus, antispyware, firewall, intrusion detection, etc. For the endpoint security software market, the consumer market is also as big as the corporate market. The corporate market is expanding its features including browser security, encryption, and centralized management. The network security market is one of the most dynamic areas in the technology sector. Some of the common trends are:  UTM is a key trend with service providers and enterprise of all sizes are realizing the benefits consolidation brings over point solution in terms of cost and effectiveness against the blended threatscape. Emerging preference to offer cloud based public and private applications is also driving the demand for UTM products.  Adoption of virtualization by large enterprises. Virtualization, with its roots

126 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

in the carrier space, is fast gaining recognition by leading enterprise networks in the world as a perfect convergence solution with consolidation to achieve hyper-cost benefits while improving efficiency in the data center.  DoT has mandated Indian telcos to be responsible for security of their own networks. They should also have an organizational policy on security and security management of their networks.  The RBI mandate is also forcing banks to follow the guidelines laid down by it on information security. Following these guidelines, banks have been drafting and implementing their IT security policies, and thus have been investing in network security solutions to curb their vulnerabilities against cyber crime and fraud. Such government regulations have also prompted

Must be Addressed  Indian security market is immature  Enterprises fail to evaluate the security loss caused  Indian market ought to proactively mitigate security threats  Industry lacks skilled IT security personnel

the industry to invest and implement network security solutions, and have contributed towards the growth of the network security market.  Proliferation of mobile devices like tablets and smartphones have allowed employees to access the corporate network and do their work from anywhere. IT consumerization, or BYOD, represents an increasing risk on enterprises’ information security. As these devices are personal and go beyond the security firewall of the organization, it is becoming a major task to secure these devices and monitor them. Organizations have to deploy solutions that can monitor and secure these mobile devices.

Growing Threats Security threats are evolving parallely with the newer and advanced technologies. Therefore security vendors ought to align with the changing market dynamics. Several great infrastructures have been established and it is imperative to maintain them. The sophistication and proliferation of security threats has accelerated in the

Only on IndIan IT. Only in daTaquesT

last couple of years. This phenomenon stems from the increasing exposure of corporate networks to the internet, primarily due to the adoption of mobile computing, web 2.0, and cloud based applications, and more recently BYOD. Consequently, every enterprise is a potential target to the increasingly sophisticated threats present on the internet. One of businesses’ biggest security challenge is the stealthy online infiltration by attackers to steal valuable proprietary information. Some of the popular security threats in the recent years are:  APTS: Highly targeted at a specific organization and takes a muted and often slow and prolonged approach to penetrating an organization, with the aim of gathering intelligence rather than making immediate financial gain.  Insider Threats: Gaining a point of access by subjecting an employee to ‘social engineering’ (ie, using more or less subtle manipulation techniques to induce him/her to run a trojan or to reveal his/her passwords. The hacker then takes advantage of this information to get inside the system and hack everything else. An example of this is what is commonly called ‘spear phishing’.  Targeted Attacks: Anonymous hacktivism is taking down major internet companies, banks offline as well as targeting government entities and threatening to go after a critical infrastructure.  Hackings: Ghostnet (a botnet deployed in various offices and embassies to monitor the Dalai Lama agenda), Stuxnet (an attempt to disrupt Iran’s uranium enrichment program), and the Sony Playstation hacking resulting in the access to the

private information of more than 77 mn users are just some examples.  Mobile Botnets: Geinimi was in 2011, it was the first Android botnet, sending a victim’s geographic location and controlling his/her phone remotely. For example, Geinimi can force the infected phone to call a given phone number. With the proliferation of smartphones, mobile malware is the next big opportunity for hackers.  Crimeware Access and CaaS: ‘Crime as a Service’ has resulted in an increase in the number of ‘crime kits’. These kits include maintenance, help, and QA support from the criminal syndicates. Common CaaS methods include rental of networks for malware/adware distribution. This makes the attack processes easier and more transparent by placing the technical requirements behind a service for hire.

Market Outlook The Indian security market is still immature. There are several companies who are yet to understand the importance of security threats. Although some enterprises have faced security attacks yet they have compromised and failed to evaluate the loss it has brought to them. The Indian market is more reactive on security attacks, it is crucial for Indian businesses to be proactive to mitigate security attacks/threats. Industry consensus is that the adoption of enterprise social networking blogs, wikis and other tools skyrockets, security for these is likely to fuel innovation and product growth. There will be an increased need for software and application security tools and to enforce application execution because the ability to bury malware within other software is going to be a dangerous tool. Currently, industry faces a shortage of IT security personnel. Several security vendors are enhancing their industryspecific offerings through organic development and/or acquisition of their product lines. Malini N malinin@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JUNE 2012 | VOICE&DATA | 127

Modem

Wireless to the Rescue The rising demand for portable devices has pushed the wireless equipment business way ahead of its wired counterparts

Highlights  Dial Up modems are dead now  Futuristic and mobile devices are

the ‘in’ thing

 Telecom, BFSI and ITES biggest

drivers  Advent of converged devices that can triple of as switches and routers killing the modem industry

he year 2011-12 was all about going wireless and it reflected in the performance of almost all communication networking products in the country. Be it switch, router, modem or other networking products, the demand was to grab a wireless product than a product that can only be connected through physical mediums. Virtues like connectivity, portability, and being future-proof drove the wireless equipment business way ahead of its wired counterparts.

Market Share

Total Market Size: `332 crore

52% Atrie Tech

21% Beetel Teletech

Market Dynamics Modems continue to be in demand for high speed broadband data connectivity and new emerging applications. The market has seen consolidation over the last couple of years. The largest contributors to the overall revenue of this market are telecom service providers, followed by

13% D-Link 14% Others

128 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

V&D Estimates

BFSI and IT/ITeS verticals. Last mile connectivity based on wireless technologies such as 3G and WiMax will boost broadband in India. The demand for 3G modems and routers will increase significantly. This will probably decide the future of this market. The modem has undergone several innovations and this era has given a push to 3G modems. With speed becoming the deciding factor in choosing broadband service, the dial-up modem market seems to be on a continuous decline as it is being replaced with better options. However, on the technology front, there has been good evolution in terms of services being offered to consumers. Of late, the market has seen good demand for DSL modems. Besides, the ADSL2+ technology modem continues to gain more and more popularity in the SOHO market due to its effectiveness to offer a high speed broadband

Volume 1

RANKINGS

Volume 3

Carrying on with the legacy of the original Top 20 rankings, this issue will rank the Top 200 players in the Indian IT Industry on the basis of their revenue.

Volume 2

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Modem

For the Next Fiscal

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Atrie Tech

171

198

-0.27

Beetel Teletech

-0.26

D-Link

-0.08

Others

0.15

Total

332

378

-0.46

Others include: Dax, Digilink, LikQuest and Belkin V&D Estimates

connectivity to small and medium businesses, along with home consumers. The newer ADSL models with further enhanced chipset like the latest ADSL2/2+ standards provide internet transmission of up to 24 Mbps downstream, 1 Mbps upstream. And these modems also continue to be the hot favorite of service providers. Moreover, increasing demand for mobility and the buzz around 3G and Wimax has given a boost to the adoption of 3G modems. Users are demanding reliable and faster connectivity on the go, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what 3G promises. Hence faster and sleeker devices will soon make their way in, with options of removable storage allowing users to take both network and their files with them wherever they go. The devices will be small enough to fit into pockets without the hassle of batteries, cables or additional hardware. Further the growing popularity of smartphones, tablet computers, and other internet ready devices is driving the demand for anytime and anywhere internet access. In the current scenario, the industry is seeing a colossal demand for DSL modems from service providers who buy through tenders. With the popularity of the new internet and broadband applications, and the emergence of technologies such as WiMax, broadband access has increased and has created a new set of customers who insist on immediate response time.

sustained consumer centric offerings. A comparatively smaller wireless product line up took a toll on the performance of the company. However the company was quick to identify its flaws and started offering more and more wireless products in the fag end of last fiscal. So far the leader in the Indian modem business, Atrie Technologies, too did not perform as per its own expectations. It also dipped almost 27% during the last fiscal. The dip in revenue for many of the vendors during last fiscal can be attributed to the availability of next generation devices that can perform as switches, routers, and modem. So, many of the users including SOHO, instead of going for modems, intelligently bought multitasking devices.

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 400

17%

200 332

378

2011-12

2010-11

Vendor Dynamics Beetel Teletech, a Bharti group company witnessed 27% decrease in value and 30% decrease in volume last fiscal despite its

130 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

V&D Estimates

4G mobile broadband is expected to drive higher penetration into homes and businesses alike. The country has already seen great early results after the launch of 3G broadband from Bharti airtel, Tata DoCoMo, Tata Photon, and Reliance NetConnect. The 3G and 4G mobile internet devices (commonly known as data cards) by telecom operators sell like hotcakes. 3G and 4G mobile modems are expected to be the one of the top technology devices of 2012 in India. The ISDN modem market will also continue to gain traction between small and medium enterprises as well as SOHOs. Globally, the industry is witnessing amplification in the adoption of Ethernet and Wi-Fi modems with VoIP connectivity, as consumers are increasingly availing themselves of VoIP services. As telcos roll out much awaited $G networks in cities and towns, there will be millions in India who will access broadband for the first time in their life through wireless 4G modems only. In 2012, India will also see advent of modems for BWA access after the high pitched corporate battle to secure BWA spectrum. Starting with major cities, India will become WiMax-enabled, and ready to embrace LTE, as carriers start laying the foundations in several cities. Riding on the new technologies, modems market in India is set to see its next level of growth. Broadband and hence broadband modems in India have seen a revolution in terms of growth of subscribers and evolution of technology in the last few years. In 2005, India was barely in the global top 50 broadband countries. However in just 7 years, we now stand tall in top 10 broadband markets globally, trailing only China and the US in terms of net subscriber additions. Today majority of new connections signed for wireline services are on account of availing broadband services. Hence data usage will take precedence over voice usage. We believe this fundamental shift in consumer behavior will drive modem sales. Gyana Ranjan Swain gyanas@cybermedia.co.in

user

device Mobile Phone.............................................................................................................. 132 FIXED PHONE.................................................................................................................. 136 DATA CARD...................................................................................................................... 138 TABLET............................................................................................................................. 140

Handsets

The Vanishing Act FY12 saw many handset companies shut shop, the Big Five ruled the Indian market

or the Indian telecom industry, the year 2012 saw a huge slowdown on all aspects. Be it value of the rupee, deployment of equipments at enterprises, service providers or even consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the market dynamics witnessed a slump. Even the monthly new mobile user additions came down from an average of 13 mn to some 4-5 mn per month.

The worst affected segment was mobile handsets. Consolidation ruled the game of the mobile handset business in India. Just a year back there were more than 200 handset brands doing business here, irrespective of scale, but in FY12, the number had come down drastically and many brands including MNCs, homegrown and grey, simply disappeared from the business.

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Market Dynamics Keeping the fiscal 2010-11 as the base for comparison, there were three categories of handset companies operating in the Indian telecom space. The MNCs include Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, LG, RIM, HTC, Apple and a couple of Chinese players; the Indian companies include names like Micromax, Maxx, Lava, Karbonn, Lemon etc; and then there

were forced to bring out new and fresh models to the market.

Highlights    

Low-end smartphones on the rise Consumer buying behavior guided by value for money and not low-cost Failure of the big 3 players impacted the market Indian handset companies put on a disappearing act

are the grey market players like G’Five, Airphone etc. The business of last year impacted all the three categories. Among the MNCs, once dominant players like Motorola, LG, and Sony Ericsson, had hardly made any move. The only brands that did some good business in that category were Nokia, Samsung, and HTC. Even RIM saw a drastic fall in its sales. Among the Indian handset brands, though the traction was poor, companies like Micromax, Karbonn and Spice were able to make their presence felt. At least they were available in the shelves of retailers across the country. The grey handset market simply vanished from the picture. Even if there were some sales of these brands, they were just clearing their old stocks. Overall, around 30 known brands closed shop or are in the process of doing so.

The Trends What impacted the performance in the handset business most in the last fiscal was the consumer behavior. The Indian consumers no more remained a price conscious lot. Though they did not like to splurge, they became more wise in buying products, demanding more value for the same price. So the low-cost handset business that was the main driving factor of the Indian handset market couple of years back suffered a lot, and the consumers did not search for the ‘cheapest phone’ in the market, rather, they searched for ‘what more can I get at this price point’. Fueling their ego is the availability of entry level smartphones at much affordable price range. So the buyers who used to go for entry level feature phones are ready to stretch their budget to another couple of thousand rupees in order to get

an entry level smartphone. And rightly so, they got more value for their money. The availability of entry level smartphones running on android platform, and mostly from Indian handset companies, gave the users the confidence to go for that. Hence, the handset companies lowered the price of their mid-range phones to the earlier price of their entry level phones. And it happened across brands including RIM, Samsung and Nokia. The feature phone segment suffered a lot due to this. On the other hand, the buying frequency of average Indians went up last fiscal. The people who used to buy or change their phones once in 11 or 12 months earlier, now ready to change in every 6 to 7 months. So there was a demand for more supply and the companies

Market Share

Total Market Size: `31,215 crore

38.2% Nokia 25.3% Samsung

6.3% Micromax 4.7% Blackberry 4.3% Karbonn

2.5% Spice 2.4% 2.5% Huawei LG 1.4% Maxx 4.5% Others

1.3% Sony

3.0% HTC

2.1% G'Five 1.6% Lava

V&D Estimates

Vendor Landscape The erstwhile leader in mobile handsets, Nokia appeared confused in the last fiscal. For the last couple of years it remained indecisive on what to do for its handset business, not just locally but also globally. Its switch between Symbian and Windows based models did give the industry a cold shoulder. The buyers—those who are not brand loyal to Nokia—could not understand why the Finnish company was not coming up with android devices when all other big names in the handset business vouch for the Google created OS. Besides Nokia, there are only two companies who do not have presence in android ecosystem—Apple and RIM. And certainly Nokia is not Apple or RIM. These two companies have their own target customers and have a different USP. Nokia caters to everyone but failed to adopt a platform that touches everyone. In FY12, the Finnish company seemingly tried to undo some of its follies of FY11. It launched more number of dual SIM phones, where it had lost market share to the Indian companies in the fiscal 2011 due to its non-presence. It made significant growth in this segment but lost phenomenally in its smartphone business. It lost to its other competitors, Samsung and HTC. Its Lumia series phones that witnessed huge growth globally in the initial phases, could not draw much attention in India. Nokia’s revenue that was almost flat in FY11 compared to FY10 saw a dip this fiscal too. The year 2011 certainly belonged to the smartphone makers, and the clear winner was the Korean electronics behemoth, Samsung. It toppled Nokia in the smartphone business, both in volume and value terms. Its Star and Galaxy series phones were instant hits in the Indian market. The entire product portfolio of Samsung were selling like hotcakes. There are many factors to Samsung’s success in India. Few are organic and some of them are inorganic. The most notable among its inorganic growth fac-

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Handsets

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Nokia

11,925

12,929

-8

Samsung

7,891

5,720

Micromax

1,978

2.289

-14

Blackberry

1,460

1.950

-25

Karbonn

1,327

1.004

HTC

923

450

105

Huawei

790

920

-14

Spice

780

1.834

-57

750

626

G’Five

670

1.326

-49

Maxx

430

745

-42

Lava

490

309

Sony

410

690

-41

Others

1391

2239

-38

31,215

33,031

-5

Total

Others include: Acer, Akai, Videocon, Apple, lava, Lemon, Zen, ZTE, Olive, Airfone, Motorola, Wyncomm V&D Estimates

tors was the lack of choice for consumers in smartphones as well as mid-range multimedia phones. Besides Samsung, there were only two or three brands available who have some brand recall value—RIM, HTC and Apple. LG, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson were almost dried up names in the business. So users who wanted to go for a new phone and are a little brand conscious had no choice but to go for Samsung. Besides, the company had launched numerous products ranging various price points for all kind of customers. It also brought some ‘firsts’ to the Indian market. The most remarkable was the launch of the Galaxy Note, a hybrid product between smartphone and a tablet. It saw huge demand in the market. The Galaxy S series phones have been doing remarkably well for last two years. BlackBerry maker, RIM saw a difficult time in the last fiscal, not only in India but also globally. Management issues, product failure, and lack of any defined USP let the Canadian company down. Though the

company tried the easiest trick to catch up with the market and to gain customer loyalty, by lowering prices, not many were impressed. However continuing the trend of the last fiscal, its entry model devices saw huge traction in FY12. Another Korean company—LG—

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 35,000

-5%

17,500 31,215

33,031

2011-12

2010-11

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V&D Estimates

seemed to be oblivious to what is happening in the Indian market. Once among the top three most popular phones in the country, the company had somehow missed the bus and has been losing market share consistently. In its Indian business, the company does not have a clear segmentation for its mobile phone business, though the areas of operations like home appliances and electronics are a brand to reckon with. The only models that the company saw some sales are in its Optimus range. The company too did not launch many models during last fiscal. The Taiwanese handset maker HTC, however, is taking long strides in the Indian market. It has been growing at more than 100% for the last few years. High quality products, less after-sale issues and a clear demarcation in smartphones, make the company a clear choice for most of the smartphone buyers. The situation with the Indian handset companies were no better. Most of them have disappeared from the scene, barring Micromax, Karbonn, Maxx, and Lava. Micromax’s performance was almost flat in FY12, as it tried to realign its businesses. The average selling price of most of the Indian handset companies went down including that of Micromax. Karbonn phones, however, saw huge demands in the B and C category cities. In volume terms, it sold more phones than its near competitors like Micromax. Lava phones did not see much growth.

Future: Back to Square One The Indian handset market, once inundated with more than 200 brands, have now come down to 10-15 brands. It is expected to complete the consolidation process in the next fiscal and the market will be again catered by by far five or six brands. The earlier ‘top five’ companies like Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson might not be the next five in coming times but the market would be served by similar number of players. The new entrants to the top five could be HTC, Micromax, and Sony Ericsson, besides Nokia and Samsung. Gyana Ranjan Swain gyanas@cybermedia.co.in

will drive the change

Creative advertising opportunities available ... Give a shout to Gulnar Oberoi at gulnaro@cybermedia.co.in

Fixed Phones

More Gloomy Days Ahead Though it is very difficult for this segment to regain its lost growth, it would not be annihilated either Highlights  The market is driven by Caller

Line Identification (CLI) and cordless phone segments  Mainly targeting the replacement buyer  Fixed phones would not annihilate due to the needs of corporate houses and the government sector  Revenue from broadband services is significantly contributing to the overall growth of fixedline

he Indian mobile subscriber base has reached 919.17 mn while the landline subscribers are 32.17 mn, as on March 31, 2012 according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority’s data. The fixed phone segment is in a state of complete despair. Although broadband is contributing slightly to the growth of fixedline revenue, due to the focus on fixed broadband and bundling of voice lines free with it, and some players have innovated products with value added features such as internet browsing, text/ picture messaging or integrated camera. Yet with the deeper penetration of mobile and growing focus and acceptance of wireless broadband and mobile broadband it is highly difficult for fixed phone segment to regain its growth and enhance revenues. Despite this, fixed phones would not be

Market Share

Total Market Size: `235 crore

50.6% Beetel Teletech

21.8% National Panasonic

11.5% Others

7.2% Siemens 5.5% BPL Telecom 3.4% ITI

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V&D Estimates

annihilated due to the needs of corporate houses and government sector and also as the internet service providers are offering broadband connectivity through the existing wired network. Fixed phone, inclusive of both cordless and wired phones, segment shows a little growth this fiscal due to the international operations, demand from enterprises and for bundling it with broadband. In FY 2011-12 the market had a 7.8 per cent growth rate. Fixed phones market posted a total revenue of `235 crore in FY 2011-12 as compared to `218 crore in FY 2010-11.

Players At a Glance From the past seven years, Beetel Teletech has maintained its leadership position in the market. This year Beetel’s revenues and sales have increased due to its international focus ie, Africa. The company’s

A Stroke of Luck

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Beetel Teletech

119

113

National Panasonic

Siemens

BPL Telecom

ITI

Others

Total

235

218

Others include: UTL, Pramod telecom, SRV Telecom V&D Estimates

revenue is pegged at `119 crore in FY12. Beetel Teletech’s customers include airtel, Tata Teleservices and MTNL. ITI (Indian Telephone Industries) had nil sales and revenues from fixedline. There were no orders from BSNL, MTNL and the defense sector. Non-receipt of expansion orders for GSM projects and non-finalization of government projects like broadband for rural panchayats and Network for Spectrum (NFS) and ASCON project resulted it in no growth this fiscal year. ITI is very ambitious though its revenues fell in fixedline. Among its major dynamic plans, ITI is planning to take up manufacturing, installation & commissioning of the equipments which is in line with the government’s mission to provide broadband connectivity to rural masses. Technology for the manufacture of GPON is availed from C-DOT. The Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, has recognized ITI as the leading agency for manufacture and supply of the low-cost tablet PCs to the student community of the country at a cost of less than `2,000 per piece. The estimated quantity is around 50-100 mn numbers in 2 to 3 years; to meet this huge demand, ITI is planning to take up manufacture of these PCs at all ITI plants. ITI has successfully executed 9 mn lines order of GSM west zone and 9 mn lines order of GSM south zone from BSNL. In the array of fixed wireless phone products Siemens has launched Gigaset professional and optiPoint WL2 profes-

sional phones. In the fixed wireline phone segment it has launched OpenStage phone, available for both TDM and IP environments. It is a stylish desktop phone. Its key features include best voice quality, touch sensitive controls, provides interoperability, supports SIP voice communication, it has built-in bluetooth for hands free operation. It is customizable with personal phone book along with pictures, digital photo frame capability, downloadable MP3 ringtones. BPL Telecom’s current range includes 24 models of fixed phones with price range starting from `300 to `2,500 and several cordless phones. It will introduce few new models and also a new product range related to communication.

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 250

125

235

218

2011-12

2010-11

0 V&D Estimates

In the present scenario, the Indian fixed phone market is primarily driven by Caller Line Identification (CLI) and cordless phone segments. The market for fixedline phones in India is stagnant. The CLI and cordless segments are showing marginal growth, and are set to spearhead the growth in the fixedline phone market. Revenue from voice services will continue to dominate the overall fixedline services in India but its contribution is expected to go down significantly. The connection and calling revenue is falling slowly. Revenue from broadband services is significantly contributing to the overall growth of fixedline services in India, with a growth of 25% from 2008 to 2013. High-end fixed telephones which are even wireless uses broadband modems that offer high speed internet connection, bypassing the telephone system. The fixed phone segment is consistently innovating products with value added features like internet browsing, text/picture messaging or integrated camera to attract consumers. Its other features include polyphonic ringtones. Also, FM radio is becoming increasingly popular as customers are looking for additional features on their fixedline phones. In the cordless phone segment, the thrust is on sleek and slim models with features like phone book, 3-way conference calls, and 2.4 Ghz digital technology. Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications technology has long range, reduced interference and Link-to-Cell technology enabled phones connects cordless phone systems to Bluetooth-enabled cellular phones. As technology advanced, central offices offered more services and their technical abilities improved. Services such as Caller ID, call return call-waiting, three-way calling, and voice-mail were offered via central office-based technology although later PBXs also provided them. The market is focusing on the replacement buyer by way of newer products and features, driving deeper product penetration into corporate and institutional buyers and by working closely with the EPABX vendors. Malini N malinin@cybermedia.co.in

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Data Card

Long Live the Card! As convenience and consumption become key, there is a substantial increase in the number of subscribers opting for data cards Highlights  Mobility driving growth  Connectivity on the move is   



he data card business is growing in a big way in India and is showing impressive growth y-o-y. With increasing digitized lifestyles, the need for wireless broadband is growing rapidly which has led to an upsurge in the usage of data cards. The data card market has emerged as one of the fastest growing sectors in the last fiscal and all the vendors in this segment have shown good revenue growth. The numbers for this sector speak for itself. The data card industry grew by 17% in FY12. Data Card Industry showed tremendous growth from FY11 with many new players entered the arena and clocked the revenue to `1,260 Cr for FY12 With the increase of broadband usage and the launch of 4G data card segment

Market Share

Total Market Size: `1,260 crore

55% Huawei

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36% ZTE

7% Micromax 1% Teracom 1% Others V&D Estimates

is likely to boost further growth in the Indian market. Leading the wagon and sitting on the largest chunk of the market share is Huawei, with impressive market share of 55% in FY12 showing 10% increase from FY11. Huawei plans to work closely with operators to offer reversed bundled data plans in the open market helping operators expand their data business. Huawei is followed by ZTE which has shown tremendous improvement in its market share. The company clocked its revenue close to `449Cr in FY12 from `374 Cr in FY11 showing a growth of 20 percent. ZTE is supplying data cards to almost all the major operators like BSNL, airtel, MTS, Reliance, Aircel, etc. Third in the league is Micromax, showing consistent performance. Micromax gained 7% of the market share and

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Change (%)

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

Huawei

693

630

ZTE

449

374

Micromax

Teracom

Others

180

Total

1,260

1,077

Others: Olive, Intex, Salora, iBall, Frontech V&D Estimates

showed 37% growth this fiscal. Micromax has been a regular supplier to Aircel, Tata Docomo, Reliance, MTNL, BSNL, and airtel. Olive showed close to 10 percent growth in the data card industry and is slowly and gradually firming its position in the industry. Companies like Intex (launched its Data Card in November last year), Salora, iBall, Frontech have also joined the league and already boosted the growth. Teracom has also made significant inroads in the data card industry with 3G and WiMax dongles in their portfolio. The company launched its data cards in 2010 and tied up with BSNL for the same. In FY12, Teracom’s revenues clocked close to `11 crore and is expected to give tough fight to top three.

4G data cards in the market, will benefit from the first mover advantage provided the experience and speed promised is fulfilled. Huawei and ZTE have launched 4G data cards in Bengaluru and Kolkota. For a seamless service experience, service providers have to meet the increasing demand for bandwidth, devices should be capable of using high-end services such as data download, accessing internet, etc. The fight today is not only about the speed and connectivity, but other additional advantages that a vendor today is offering to its customers in data card industry. Players are leaving no stone unturned in offering best to its users with respect to services and experience.

Growth Dossier Data card industry is fueling growth of mobile broadband technologies in India. They are not only providing high speed but also better coverage. With 3G, this has further enhanced the speed. With mobility and evolution of smart devices, not only in India but also around the globe, the need and demand of being connected anywhere and anytime has further escalated the demand of data cards. Today, the players in this segment are in tough competition with each other to offer best surfing speed at cheaper tariffs. Now, when fourth-generation technology is also coming into the picture, the industry is poised for further competition. Players who have already launched

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 1,500

17%

750 1,260

1,077

2011-12

2010-11

0 V&D Estimates

Players are coming out with embedded cloud services into data cards and smartphones. Huawei has cloud services in data cards (cloud plus) which is offering 16 GB space to users and comes free of cost loaded with remote features.

For One and All Data cards are not only addressing the enterprise and business segments, but also varied segments like students, selfemployed entrepreneurs, households, business verticals, consumers in smaller towns, etc. Prepaid users on the other hand are contributing in a huge way to the adoption of data cards. As convenience and consumption become the key factors, there is an uphill climb in the number of subscribers opting for data cards. Affordability is also a major push factor as the prices have gone down heavily, which has led to an uptake even by mid-level consumers. The growth has been such that the fixed broadband is also facing tough competition from the mobile broadband.

What’s Next Leaving behind the connectivity factor, the industry will keep growing as demand for additional functionalities like integrated music player, display, etc, will grow. The Indian rural market is one of the key segments where the internet penetration hasn’t increased as compared to the mobile reach. The rural sector holds a largely untapped potential for the data card players to grow the market to the next level. The trend to subscribe for fastest and instant wireless internet services has changed the entire ecosystem. In the Indian telecommunications market, which is highly competitive, locking yourself to one operator’s network is not a wise decision. But unfortunately, the 3G data card segment in India is dominated by SIM locked devices. Thus, having an open network data card has a lot of advantage over locked SIM dongles which will be an upcoming trend in the market. Akanksha Singh akankshas@cyberemdia.co.in

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Tablets

Biggies Remain Biggies Biggies like Samsung and Apple capture the larger pie, while the smaller ones fight to survive

Highlights  First tablet launched in India by

Olive in 2010  30 tablets available so far  Samsung Galaxy Tab is the highest selling tablet

strong wave of new tablet players flooded the Indian telecom market in 2011-12. Just like what happened with the mobile phones couple of years back, both domestic and multinational companies joined the rat race in launching tablets in the Indian market. Besides the MNCs, the most homegrown handset makers also forayed into the market by launching a product or two. However the take-off for the homegrown tablets was not as good as it went for the MNCs. The size of the emerging dynamic market can be very well estimated from the fact that the market that came into picture a mere 4 years ago, boast of around 35 tablets with more than 100 models today. While the global vendors like Apple, Samsung, RIM, Motorola, etc, catering to

Market Share

Total Market Size: `1,962 crore

56.52% Samsung

the elite customers, many Indian players including Olive, Beetel, Wespro, Karbonn, Spice, Toshiba, HCL, LACs Magnum, Micromax, Aakash, Wistel, Ace, also offered to suffice the palette of the not so affluent class. Even the telecom operators like BSNL and Reliance Communications could not resist themselves from launching few models though with bundled offers.

Vendor Dynamics 12.84% Others

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22.53% Apple

V&D Estimates

Samsung clearly tops the chart in the Indian tablet market. The success can be attributed to its forte in the smartphone market. The Korean company’s strategy of utilizing its success in the handset segment to the tablet segment helped the company to occupy the first slot. It also appeared a bit lucky in the tablet business in India as no other global company besides Apple has a good product. The sheer quality of

Top Players (FY 2011-12) Players

Revenue (in `crore)

Units

Change (%)

208

359,715

433

442

122,720

2,226

121

39,089

HCL

33,900

Others

252

178,016

6,200

Total

1,962

231

733,440

749

FY 11-12

FY 10-11

1,109

Apple RIM

Samsung

Others include: Olive, Motorola, Rcom, BSNL, Beetel, Akash, Viewsonic, & Acer V&D Estimates

the product, not enough competitors, and devices with different screen size helped the company in acquiring many customers. Samsung sold 359,715 units in the FY 2011-12 and its extensively selling Galaxy Tab, helped the company to capture a whooping market share of 56%. Also, its smart move of slashing the price of its Galaxy tab played an important role in leaving behind Apple iPad in the tablet race. The company is seeing a good traction in some sectors like education, retail, and healthcare where devices like tablets are set to play a big role in the near future. Coming in the second place, Apple continues to woo the market by its ever evolving features and niche offering. The Cupertino based company, in the beginning of the fiscal, slashed the price of iPad 1 globally as well as for the Indian market. Selling 122,720 units in the last fiscal in the country Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shipment illustrates the strong foothold that the company has in the tablet space with a market share of 22%. Many a customers who used to look at the shelves for an Apple product grabbed the offering, and certainly the success of iPad 1 helped the company to bring the next version of the tablet to Indian market. The third slot was occupied by BlackBerry. The brand loyalty of customers, showered penchant for RIMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s BlackBerry PlayBook which helped the company to sell shipment of around 39, 089 making it the third largest player in just one year. However the company could not do much business in the tablet space. The

BlackBerry playbook, it appeared, was a failed product. Globally as well as in India, it faced the same fate. Multiple factors killed the tablet business of RIM. Firstly, it was killed by the sheer expectation of its loyal customers. They expected a clear differentiation of the playbook from the other products available in the market as they used to get in BlackBerry smartphones. Secondly, it was a challenge to get the tablet connected to the internet as it does not have a SIM slot. Besides Wi-Fi, the only way you could get the connectivity is through doing a sync with BlackBerry smartphones. It restricted the adoption among the non-BlackBerry users. Third, the price was too high for the customers at which they struggled to get the value

Market Size (in `crore) Revenue (FY 2011-12) 2,000

749%

1,000 1,962

231 0 2011-12

2010-11 V&D Estimates

for money. However in the fag end of the year, the company changed its business strategy and slashed the tablet price to almost half. During the festival season, the company also launched a scheme where a playbook buyer would get a Blackberry smartphone free. Both these schemes worked wonders for RIM India. The Indian tablet players, though, could not make enough money as the products were too inferior in quality despite being cheaply priced.

Trends Looking at the current dynamics, it seems that the major users of the tablets would comprise the business class in the coming years as increasing number of business owners are preferring tablets over smartphones due to their form factor and advantages like larger screens, better security, and more processing power. Ease of use, long battery life, mobility, ability to multi-task, instant on/off, and wide range of applications available can be seen as the reasons for growth of the market . The outlook for the tablet market in India seems very promising as the overall consumer spending and acceptance is increasing in the country, however it will also see the perishing of small players as the technology aficionados may not like to compromise on the feature and application front. Looking at the current dynamics, the new entrants who are bound to face an onslaught from the arch-rivals need to revisit their strategies and also concentrate on their applications and appealing technology rather than on playing with the price card. Though the tablet ecosystem is at a nascent stage, the proliferation of tablets is expected to increase significantly with the launch of faster data technologies and growing awareness among customers. The acceptance of the market would hugely depend on affordability, applications along with support, and data connectivity. Hence it seems that going into an era of next generation devices, the tablet market still has a long way to go. Ritu Singh ritus@cybermedia.co.in

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Nokia

‘Shifting to 3G is slow due to lack of awareness’

andset Market Trends The handset devices market is growing. Genuine brands are consolidating as it is inevitable and the Chinese brands do not have any future. More and more people are buying smartphones and the focus is more on battery life, storage, and speed. There is already a lot of uncertainty in telecom and coupled with economic slowdown, things have become more complicated. Nokia’s Performance We are a clear market leader in dual phones. There is a transition to smart devices and we are supporting Windows so the challenge is to grow the market. The uptake of Lumia is more because people are liking the design, big features, tight integration of social media, email, and Nokia drive. It is a new OS so at the end of 5 months we are ahead with the other OS for the same timeframe. In music services, Nokia music store is India’s largest online music store with a catalog of over 4.5 mn songs. 3G Uptake The shift from 2G to 3G is in slow trickle as the subscribers do not know what they are paying for. The equation in voice vis-avis data is different. For 3G to be successful, simplicity of plan has to come in for data. Focus should be on applications like health, education, and payment. For video calls, infrastructure across the country and linkages are a big problem. Closing of Nokia Money In Kenya, the Central Bank was liberal whereas in India, the banking regulation and guideline is tough. The payment is regulated and bulk of mobile payment is either utility payment or peer-to-peer payment. To be profitable one needs to have 100 mn subscribers. Chennai Manufacturing The Chennai facility is the largest in the world. We are very strong in exports and are exporting handsets to as many as 50 countries in the world. Nokia App Store We are the #1 app store in the country and it has a combination of local and Indian applications. The app store also provides operator billing and the company has tied up with Reliance, Bharti airtel, and Vodafone.

—D Shivakumar senior VP, Nokia, India, Middle East, and Africa

OS War The war of phones is a war of ecosystem as the application world is changing. We have 4 OS? Apple, RIM, Windows, and Android. In terms of positioning, we are on right track as we have multi-services strategy. Enterprise Apps Presently, the focus is on large enterprises but the opportunity is to open it up for SMB segments in a big way as it has big revenue source in future.

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Top 10

The Dual-SIM King For the first time the company has shown negative growth, the blame goes to low Lumia uptake and non-aggressive approach on smartphones

t was a mixed year for Nokia as the company took a beating on smartphones but increased its market share in dual-SIM by becoming a clear leader. The overall revenue numbers have slightly gone down as Nokia is not the first choice in smartphones but the company has performed well in feature phones and has also in exports. The fightback for dual-SIM paid off as the company launched a range of handsets. The company announced Nokia Asha 202, a dual-SIM touch & type phone designed for enhanced and costeffective web browsing. Also Nokia Asha 200, a stylish QWERTY and Nokia X2-02. It also introduced the innovative, stylish, and affordable Nokia C2-00 dual-SIM internet phone and Nokia X1-01 dualSIM music phone. And touch & type slider phones, Nokia C2-03 and Nokia C2-06. Nokia C2-03 was also introduced allowing the user to personalize up to 5 SIM cards. A premium version is also available with Nokia C2-06. The company also launched the most affordable Nokia 101 dual-SIM music. On smartphones, Nokia launched Asha 303, a stunning touch & type with QWERTY keypad and Nokia E6 and Nokia X7, aimed at business professionals and entertainment enthusiasts. In April 2011, Nokia and Microsoft formalized Windows Phone as the primary smartphone platform and the company had a lot of expectations from Lumia series as it was a turning point for Nokia in India. In terms of investment, it was one of the biggest launch in the fiscal for any handset brand. Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 710 based on Windows platform were launched on December 15, 2011, but the response was not as per the expectations due to high price of the handset.

1 On the apps side, the company has a strong position as it has more than 200,000 app developers and over 60 mn downloads a month. The Nokia Store is presently the largest app store in India with over 50% of all downloads. The company is also supporting apps developers with tools and insights so that they can come up with more innovative applications. The company has launched many useful apps such as Nokia maps & drive, real-time traffic service, city lens, Nokia

Revenue

FY 2011-12 (in ` crore) -7.7%

12,929 11,925

2011-12

2010-11 V&D Estimates

transport, etc. Nokia maps & drive delivers a full-fledged voice guided navigation device in 50 languages for 2,195 cities in India. Real-time traffic service gives traffic update for Delhi and Mumbai to get more accurate routes and better estimated travel timings. City lens gives users an easier way to find nearby locations through augmented reality or through a simple map view whereas Nokia transport makes available local public transport information for 11 cities. Available in 12 languages, the SMS based Nokia life service offers services in areas of parenting, life skills, education, health, entertainment, and agriculture. The company has also launched traffic management project called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;3rdEYEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in Gurgaon aimed to curb traffic violation. The Chennai facility is the largest facility in the world and on May 5, 2011, crossed production of 500 mn handsets. The company achieved its milestone in the fifth year. Presently, the company is exporting handsets to 50 countries. Nokiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success in the smartphone market will depend on its ability to introduce attractive, competitively priced products on Windows platform phone that are differentiated from competitors, but one has to see how the new Lumia series fares against Samsung, Apple, HTC, and Blackberry. Getting to number one position in the smartphone industry would not be easy, but it would be make or break for Nokia India. But the Finnish telecom giant has to put up a brave fight in order to reclaim its lost glory. It has to bring out a complete change in perspective in how it is going to do business in India in the coming years. Innovative products, focused R&D, improved customer care, quality brand campaign, and a bit of luck are what the company desperately needs now. Nokia, the name that is still synonymous with mobile phones in many parts of the world and in India, though in a tight spot at present, but looking at its potential, it would not be surprising to see the leader run past its competitors in times to come.

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SAMSUNG

‘We emerged as No.1 smartphone player with 45% market share’

erformance in FY 2011-12 Samsung emerged as the number one smartphone provider with a market share of 45%. We strengthened our retail network by creating a new format of retail, termed as the Samsung Smartphone Cafes last year and had over 300 cafes connecting more than 100,000 retail touch points. This year also, we came out with some very unique offerings like the Galaxy Note, which helped us create a new segment in the smartphone market. So far we have sold more than 5 mn units worldwide since its launch last October. We also consolidated our position in feature phones and dual SIMs. Our Galaxy tab range of phones have done exceedingly well in the market and we hope to build further on our success. Innovations in FY 2011-12 Innovation has always been one of our great strengths. We innovated across our business to gain leadership in the market. We created a new market category with the launch of Galaxy Note. We were the first company to introduce smartphones with dual SIMs in India. Enterprise Customers We are uniquely positioned to address the needs of enterprise customers as we have a complete range of products from smartphones to tablets. Our smartphones come with robust security systems and are compatible with all security protocols. A significant number of smartphone devices come preloaded with enterprise applications like Cisco WebEx and Microsoft Office Suite. After Sales Service We have over 2,500 service centers and have one of the largest after sales service networks in the country. India Manufacturing In 2011, we invested over $70 mn in manufacturing facility at Noida towards tripling our production capacity. We are manufacturing 30-35 models, including smartphones. India’s R&D Focus The Bengaluru R&D has the largest software workforce of Samsung outside Korea and is developing customized solutions for the Indian market by developing protocol and platform software for mobiles. Indian R&D engineers are developing leading edge solutions and products in areas of 3G, 4G, and 3D. Also in open source software, the Indian R&D center have a key role to play on graphics, web, multimedia, systems, and convergence.

—Ranjit Yadav country head, mobile & IT, Samsung India

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Plans for the Next Fiscal We will continue to innovate and bring new leading technology devices to our consumers. Our latest offering is the GALAXY S III, which will be introduced in the Indian market next month. We will continue to enhance and enrich our entire portfolio including smartphones, feature phones, dual SIMs, and tablets.

Top 10

The Smartphones King Offering hybrid products between smartphones and tablets, Samsung is set for many more glorious years in India

011 was the year of smartphones and certainly the year of Korean electronics major Samsung. The year saw Samsung snatching the reigns from Nokia to become the king of smartphone business in India. The summit was conquered and captured by Nokia since the times smartphones came to India. Many global players like Apple, RIM, LG, Sony, and HTC had so far failed to dethrone the Finnish handsets giant. But Samsung did it. A series of next generation devices, persistent innovation, industry defying products, and offering ‘future products today’ have helped the Korean player achieve what other players have not even dreamt of. At least not in this short span of time. It toppled Nokia in the smartphone business, both in volume and value terms. Its Star and Galaxy series phones were instant hits in the Indian market. The entire product portfolio of Samsung was selling like hotcakes. There are many factors to Samsung’s success in India. Few are organic and some of them are inorganic. The most notable among its inorganic growth factors was the lack of choice for consumers in smartphones as well as mid-range multimedia phones. Besides Samsung, there were only 2 or 3 brands available which have some brand recall value. RIM, HTC, Apple, LG, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson were almost dried out names in this business. So users who wanted to go for a new phone and are little brand conscious had no choice but to go for Samsung. Besides, the company had launched numerous products ranging from various price points for all kind of customers. It also brought some ‘firsts’ to the Indian market. The most remarkable

2 was the launch of the Galaxy Note, a hybrid product between a smartphone and a tablet. It saw huge demand in the market. It is estimated that Samsung is selling around 40,000 Galaxy Notes every month, means half a million phones a year. And that is an enviable feat keeping the high price of the product in mind. The Galaxy S series phones, too, have been doing remarkably well for the last 2 years. One of the remarkable thing about the Korean giant is it caters to all kind of customers, and fit to all kind of budgets.

Revenue

FY 2011-12 (in ` crore) 57.3%

9,000

5,720

2011-12

2010-11 V&D Estimates

Also, this is the only company that has smartphone offerings in multiple operating systems- Android, Bada and Windows. And that gives ample choice to prospective buyers. Galaxy Tab was the first true tablet to be launched in the Indian market, though there are a couple of homegrown manufacturers who had launched tablets earlier. It’s been almost 2 years since the tablet was launched and many other global players like Apple, RIM, and Motorola too have launched tablets in the Indian markets, but Samsung is doing more business than all of them put together. Classy design, products in different sizes and on different operating systems, plethora of apps to choose from, able after sales service, robust channel strategy, and more importantly, suiting every budget—all these factors put together have helped the Korean major become the leader in the Indian handset space. The other ‘first’ was the launch of dual SIM smartphones. The company launched 3 phones in that category and the Galaxy Ace Duos is the most selling product in it. And not just the end users, the company has ample supply for the enterprise customers as well. It has products ranging from smartphones to tablets and notebooks and a significant number of its smartphones come preloaded with enterprise applications like Cisco Webex, Microsoft Office Suite, etc. Among other things, the company’s R&D center at Bengaluru has the highest number of software workforce outside Korea and are developing products like LTE, 4G, and 3D. With a 360 degree perspective of the Indian telecom space, innovative product line up, and wellestablished retail strategy coupled with quality after sales service, Samsung is set for many more glorious years in the Indian business arena. To cater to all kind of customers, it has been noticed taht the Korean company has ramped up its after sales service, in terms of quantity and quality, to a new height. With all these customer centric approach, it seems the Korean electronics giant means business and that too a lot of it.

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Cisco India

‘We have supplied packet core solutions to 6 operators’

evenue Performance On the service providers side, we have done pretty well. We have supplied packet core solutions to about 6 operators. Packet core has grown significantly due to growth in 3G, data services, and smartphones. Cable TV digitization in 4 metros helped us in achieving 100% growth in this vertical. We worked closely with cable companies and will continue to benefit from digitization. We continued our increased market share in routing and switching. We have also done extremely well in collaboration and data center business. We have gained in most of the critical projects of the government. SMB Performance We have expanded big time in tier-2 and -3 cities. There has been a lot of upcountry growth. The uptake of technologies is increasing and there is a lot of stickiness in the reseller community. Growth will continue and we are more optimistic about SMB in FY13. Services Business On the services side, we depend on partners. Our partners do services value add on Cisco hardware. We provide value add in terms of advisory, advanced, and technical services. Smart + Connected Communities Projects For DMIC (Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor), Cisco is working on the IT master plan for the first 2 pilot cities, Dholera in Gujarat and Shendra in Maharashtra. There is a slow progress on Lavasa, and Mahindra has still not initiated the infrastructure rollout. GIFT has come up with fresh bid. Overall we are focusing on holistic solutions and the focus is on healthcare, education, public safety, and security. Chinese Competitors Huawei and ZTE are planning to commoditize everything in networking. For us, we have to innovate locally and we need to fast track that strategy. We are looking at network as a strategy asset for business and when it comes to security there is no compromise in any form. Channel Spread We have grown our partner base from 1,200 to 2,500. We have now 11 gold partners, 9 siler partners, and 4 distributors.

—Naresh Wadhwa president and country manager, Cisco India

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Safe Cities In FY13, we will see couple of cities initiating safe city projects and when this happens, we will see floodgate opening up for more cities in India. Major Deployments Some of the major projects deployed by Cisco includes: Data center project by Essar Group, cable TV digitization for GTPL and Fastway, and wide area network optimization across 1,632 branches of Union Bank of India.

Top 10

Unimpressive! Looking at Cisco’s product portfolio, the company’s performance was a let down

iscal 2012 saw the company operating as the ‘Next Cisco’—less complex, more agile. Cisco has maintained its leadership position in the industry, and continued the success story in FY12 clocking a whopping ` 7,096 crore, up from `7,010 in FY11; showing a growth of 1.2%. India has contributed to its revenues immensely—particularly in service provider, SMB, and services business. Cisco has supplied packet core solutions to 6 operators. Thanks to the process of cable TV digitization in India, Cisco immediately plunged in and achieved 100% growth in this. The recent customers of Cisco include Essar Group, Gujarat Telelinks (GTPL), Fastway, United Bank of India, etc. At present, Cisco is working on $90 bn infrastructure project along with Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Company (DMIC) to develop an ICT master plan for 2 pilot cities—Dholera in Gujarat and Shendra in Maharashtra. Cisco deployed next-generation digital set-top boxes for GTPL across Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand. The company deployed more than 2 mn digital set-top boxes across Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh. Cisco increased its channel presence in FY12, its partner base grew from 1,200 to 2,500 plus partners. Its partners include Accenture Services, British Telecom India, Velocis (formerly Integrix), Proactive, Locuz, PC Solutions, Ingram Micro, Redington, Compuage, and Comstor. The company witnessed an extensive growth from upcountry in SMB segment. It has expanded into tier-2 and -3 cities to tap the SMB segment further. To beat Chinese competition, Cisco intends to innovate locally on the networking front. It is eying

3 network as a strategy asset for business. Cisco India has 7 sales offices in—New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. Its headcount is 8,000+ including R&D, sales and business support staff. The Global Development Center in Bengaluru, is the largest outside the US. It provides an extensive support system for customers with 18 logistics centers and offers a support program called ARNBD advance replacement next business day (ARNBD) for its resellers. Currently, there are 201 active Cisco net-

Revenue

FY 2011-12 (in ` crore) 1.2%

7,096 7,010

2011-12

2010-11 V&D Estimates

working academies across 23 states and union territories with 22,941 students, 26% of which are women students. Its market share in India in different segments include—in core technologies like router it is 59.3%, switch 57.6%, total LAN 58.2%. In advanced technologies segments—its market share in WLAN is 36.8%, security 31.7%, enterprise telephony 26.6%, and IP PBX 48.8%. Cisco’s key customers across India comprise Ford India, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Tata Group, Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, Gas Authority of India, Indian Oil Corporation, Le Royal Meridien, Taj Group of Hotels, Hindustan Lever, Tata, Reliance, Bharti, VSNL, BSNL, MTNL, SIFY, Idea Cellular, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, United India Insurance Corporation, New India Assurance, National Insurance Corporation, Life Insurance Corporation, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, IDBI Bank, ICICI, IDRBT, Vysya Bank, Yes Bank, State Governments of Gujarat, West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh, Lok Sabha (Parliament) Library, Supreme Court, National Highway Authority, Tesco, Unisys, US Technologies, Mahindra, First India Insurance, Symphony Technology, Thomson Reuters, HCL, vCustomer, Phoenix, Nirvana, Manjushree, and TransWorks The consolidated revenue of products and services are $27,176 mn and $7,195 mn, respectively. Its net income in Q1 2012 was $1.8 bn, in Q2 $2.2 bn, and Q3 $2.2 bn. Cisco plans to acquire NDS Group, a provider of video software and content security solutions. This fiscal it completed the acquisition of Lightwire which develops advanced optical interconnect technology for networking applications. To enhance its network management capabilities, it acquired ClearAccess. It has made a few strategic investments in Brazil. Its other acquisitions in FY12 include Versly, Axioss, and BNI Video. It has entered into strategic partnerships with Microsoft to deliver data center virtualization, Citrix Systems to develop and deliver desktop virtualization, and HP to bridge its data center server and networking architectures.

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Wipro

‘Our emerging market strategy paid off’

evenue Performance in FY 2011-12 We grew significantly as compared to competitors and market expectations. Our strategy of focusing on emerging markets continued to payoff. We also ventured into ASEAN and MEA geographies.

Orders Bagged Wipro won a 5-year deal with a leading European telco to provide infrastructure management services and end-to-end transformation services for their entire IT assets. In Eastern Europe, we won a deal with a German operator for shared services consultancy. We also bagged an OSS deal from a leading telecom provider in Austria. ASEAN continues to be our big bet where we won 2 important contracts in the NGN, OSS/BSS transformation, data warehousing, and analytics. We also won a contract with a leading Middle East multi-country operator for end-to-end service assurance and consultancy services. We partnered with a telecom operator in Africa that has presence across multiple countries and also helped a leading European equipment manufacturer to create lightweight base station. Reasons for Strong Performance Our strong domain expertise across IT, networks, and operations coupled with leadership in emerging technology areas such as cloud, mobility, and analytics are the reasons behind our strong performance. Our continued focus is on emerging markets and investment in creating strategic solutions focusing on business outcomes is one of the other factors contributing to the company’s growth. Top 5 Geographies Our focus is on emerging markets and specifically the communications business in Africa, ASEAN, and Eastern Europe will be our big bets. Cancellation of Licenses We don’t comment on the issue. As a matter of fact, our engagements with Indian telcos continue to be as per the agreed SLAs.

—Anil Jain senior vice president and global head, communications and media, Wipro

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Indian Opportunities Service providers in India are struggling to remain viable due to the price war, slowing subscriber growth rate, and falling profit margins. The mobile market is likely to consolidate in the next 3-5 years and incumbents with superior networks, strong product portfolios, and better customer experience are likely to survive. 3G/4G, analytics, and customer experience management are some of the key opportunities. Major Investments We continue to invest in people for building expertise. Our focus on building transformational solutions will help telcos in developing new revenue streams. The company has also invested in Wipro RAPIDs 2.0, Wipro M2M, Wipro Content Marketplace, and Wipro Customer Experience solutions.

Top 10

Betting Big Wipro’s strategy of focusing on emerging markets continued to payoff as the company registered 22% growth in FY12

ocusing heavily on emerging markets, Wipro is leaving no stone unturned in marking its presence strongly in ASEAN and MEA geographies. Its strategy of focusing on emerging markets continued to pay off as it registered 22.5% growth in FY12 from the previous fiscal. Wipro grew from `5,752 crore in FY11 to `7,044 crore in FY12. From ASEAN regions, Wipro bagged 2 major deals in the NGN, OSS/BSS transformation, data warehousing and analytics. It also won a contract with middle east multi-country operator for providing endto-end service assurance and consultancy services. In Eastern Europe, Wipro won a deal with a leading telecom operator in Germany for shared services consultancy. it also bagged an OSS deal from a leading telecom provider in Austria. The company also partnered with an African operator for business process standardization, IT transformation, analytics, and mobile number portability for all their OPCOs. A leading global computing peripherals provider has selected Wipro to reduce the total cost of ownership of R&D for its legacy product portfolio. Wipro will be responsible for the sustenance and enhancement of firmware for a large family of devices for the next 5 years. Wipro have deployed a low-cost campaign management solution for one of the fastest growing telcos that helped them in rapidly launching new campaigns based on customer behavior, demand patterns, network availability, and other factors. It has won a multi-year engagement with a leading communication service provider in North America to provide technical support services and in future, enable a set of IT and operations transformation initiatives.

4 The company’s equipment vendor vertical saw a significant increase in the wireless business and won some key contracts. Although the company is not witnessing a dramatic rise in TEV’s IT spending, but they foresee partnering opportunities in the network managed service space. It also helped a leading European equipment manufacturer to create a lightweight base station—giving it a future-proof hardware solution to support evolving wireless technologies and reduce TCO for service providers.

Revenue

FY 2011-12 (in ` crore) 22.5%

7,044

5,752

2011-12

2010-11 V&D Estimates

Focusing on government vertical, Wipro won a large contract facilitated by NABARD to provide total solution and implement CBS in the identified state cooperative banks and central cooperative banks including providing the required database, middleware, network, and project implementation and management. The United Bank of India has selected Wipro to deploy a wide area network optimization solution from Cisco for all of its 1,600 plus branches and offices. The deployment is amongst the largest globally for any public sector bank. In the education sector, Wipro has been chosen by the national university of Singapore for a multi-million dollar IT infrastructure services engagement. Apart from this, Wipro has signed a multi-year deal with a large financial institution to provide development and operational support services. Wipro’s growing revenue can also be credited to its innovative solutions that the company focused on and launched last fiscal. Few of these includes their M2M solution, Rapid Application Integration and Deployment Solution, Sprint HR cloud based technology—an online platform built on Wipro COMET and their customer experience solutions. Fueling mobility business, Wipro mobility solutions deployed best smartphone mobile shopping app for a US retailer. Wipro is helping a global financial services company in enabling their sales force with iPad based applications, allowing them to manage sales leads, capture customer information, and initiate the application processing at the customer point. Wipro launched its own enterprise appstore ‘Wipro Applife’ in the last quarter. Wipro also unveiled a state-of-the-art testing facility in Bellevue, WA, USA, to provide Microsoft Lync Server 2010 qualification testing services for unified communication products. Globally, Wipro has shown potential in delivering some niche consulting and system integration projects in the 4G/LTE space. It has developed its LTE Evolved Packet Core (EPC) solution for public safety, defense, large enterprises, and rural markets.

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HUAWEI

‘We have gained almost 25% of 3G national market share’

erformance in FY 2011-12 Huawei has achieved leadership position in 3G rollouts, gaining almost 25% of the national market share. We also enlarged our footprint as an ICT solutions provider in India by launching enterprise business division and extended the product portfolio of devices into smartphone category and launched new cloud based phones. We strengthened our commitments towards customers by launching the GNOC in Bengaluru and started construction of our brand new company owned R&D center in Bengaluru with an additional investment of $150 mn. Enterprise Division Performance We achieved breakthrough in sectors like power, government, ISP, media, and healthcare. We have also established a strong channel strategy with 12 value added partners, 3 national distributors, and 156 tier-2 partners. We are seeing strong business pickup in products like telepresence, switches, transmission, and home devices. Device Performance We launched the Ideos series of smartphones and also world’s first series of cloud phones in India, thus offering an unparalleled 16 GB of free cloud space under `10,000. We also widened our market reach to 32 top cities and towns. Huawei continues to command dominant market share on combined 3G and EV-DO data cards category and launched India’s first LTE/CPE/dongles through Bharti airtel. Impact of Canceled Licenses Impact for Huawei will be small. The company will always support the customers and protect their investments. TD-LTE Order Huawei is the global leader in the business of mobile broadband. In India, Bharti airtel has engaged Huawei for their LTE rollouts in Karnataka. Under this deal, Huawei will deliver end-to-end LTE solution comprising terminals, network infrastructure, and broadband applications. Huawei will also be responsible for design, planning, modernization, and expansion of Bharti airtel’s network, as well as managing operations and maintenance.

—Cai Liqun CEO, Huawei India

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Managed Services Performance Managed services continues to grow steadily and our launching of GNOC center in Bengaluru is an important milestone in Huawei’s history. We are now focusing on LTE and new cloud based business models and looking at the overall telecom IT convergence that will fuel the next wave of growth. New Initiatives Huawei offers employees global exposure through a well established process and strategy. In India, such opportunities are offered through GSRC or Global Solutions Center Teams where the employee gets to work for global clients and processes.

Top 10

Spreading its Wings In the last fiscal, the company started its enterprise division and set up an open channel for devices

he company is looking at India as a strategic market and providing end-to-end services for operators and the enterprise market. With a 6,000 employee base in India, the company has set up a manufacturing base in Chennai and global network operations center (GNOC) in Bengaluru. In the fiscal, the company changed its focus from pure carrier play and entered the enterprise segment in a big way by investing $15 mn. Huawei is offering a complete bouquet of services which includes networking products—router and switch; unified communication, telepresence, and call center products; IT products—modular data center, cloud computing desktop, and virtual solution like wireless banking, GSM-R, and smart grid. The company is aggressively looking at verticals such as government, power, transport, education, and healthcare. On the channel part, the company has tied up with 12 value added partners, 3 national distributors, and 156 tier-2 partners. The company has a strong base in 3G through ongoing contracts with Bharti, Idea, Tata DOCOMO, RCom, Aircel, BSNL, and MTNL. Even in 2G, the company has ongoing contracts with Idea, Tata, RCom, Aircel, BSNL, and MTNL and majority of new operators like Videocon, MTS, Uninor, Etisalat, Loop, and STel. The new operators will make a dent in future revenues depending upon spectrum auction results by DoT. To give a big boost to managed services, the company opened the first GNOC outside of China in Bengaluru. The GNOC complements existing Network Operation Center (NOC) located in New Delhi. And will help in providing professional services such as network design,

5 customer support, network optimization, systems integration, and network transformation for both in-country and off-shore operators. On managed services, the company is focusing on LTE and new cloud based business models and looking at the overall telecom and IT convergence that will fuel the next wave of growth. In its current capacity it supports around 500 seats, 140,000+ sites, and covers all kind of technologies including

Revenue

FY 2011-12 (in ` crore) 22.6%

6,976

5,688

2011-12

2010-11 V&D Estimates

wireless, wireline, and transmission. This will be a big plus as all the other vendors have been operating their NOC from a long time. On TDD-LTE, the company successfully conducted the world’s first GSM/UMTS/ TDD-LTE trial on Aircel’s existing GSM/ UMTS network in India using Qualcomm’s MDM9600 multi-mode chipset. During the trial, the company demonstrated high speed data services including video streaming via YouTube, video on demand, and high definition video surveillance. The company has opened its TD-LTE account by signing deals with Bharti airtel for Karnataka. The deal includes planning, designing, supplying, and deploying TD-LTE solution comprising of network infrastructure and devices. The company is also constructing R&D campus in Bengaluru with a total investment of $150 mn. The facility will double the capacity of current 2,500+ local staff once it is complete in 2013. In the year, the company set up 6 production lines by setting up 2 manufacturing facilities in Chennai. On the devices front, the company has launched its product in the open market by focusing on top 32 cities in the country. The company launched the first cloud phones—Huawei Sonic and Huawei Ideos X3 in the Indian market. Huawei also launched Mediapad, the first 7” Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet, targeted at mobile professionals who are looking for a portable entertainment and business optimized tablet. Also launched was Huawei Honor and the Huawei Ideos X5 in the Indian market. Powered by the latest Gingerbread and ICS-ready (Android 4.0) smartphone, Huawei Honor provides up to 3 days of talk-time. On the devices front, the company launched data cards EC303C dongle and E560 MiFi in Indian market. The entire last year turned out to be very satisfying for the Chinese telecom major, and with its renewed focus on enterprises offerings equipped with state-of-the-art technology and cost saving products, Huawei holds a lot of promise for the Indian telecommunications market.

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NSN

‘Airtel chose us for their pan-India customer experience management’

evenue Performance in FY 2011-12 Thanks to some landmark deals, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has been able to sustain its market leadership in FY12. In fact, the performance has been almost at par with last year’s figures. In a first-of-its-kind implementation in India to enrich data services experience, we were chosen by Bharti airtel for panIndia deployment of our Customer Experience Management (CEM) platform. Five operators have also selected intelligent mobile packet core solution, as a result our networks now carry data traffic from all 22 circles in India serving 300 mn subscribers. In another feat, Bharti airtel also selected us to build and operate TD-LTE network in Maharashtra. Cancellation of Licenses Our business focus lies on maintaining long-term competitiveness and improving profitability. Hence, our selective business decisions are based on generating optimal repeat businesses with our longstanding customers. So the impact of cancellation had an overall negligible impact on our revenues. 3G Equipment Deployment We emerged as the leading 3G mobile infrastructure and services vendor in India with 30% market share. We are 3G partners for Aircel, Bharti airtel, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, and Vodafone. Managed Services Performance Today, we have more than 360 managed services contracts with globally180 operators serving close to 700 mn subscribers. We bring the benefits of global scale, best practices, and innovation to operators in India. Operators are looking for a single managed services partner with multi-vendor capabilities. And NSN meets all the requirements perfectly. In the past year, we have renewed practically all our managed services contracts that were up for renewal. Apart from others, the ones that we have publically announced include contract extension with Bharti airtel for another 5 years in 8 circles of the country. In addition, we also bagged deals for several greenfield and other network expansions by customers. CPE Focus With Motorola’s acquisition, NSN now has a full-fledged data device business supporting LTE. We have a wide range of devices in the form of USB adapters, mobile hotspot routers, and outdoor modems. We will be providing our devices to Bharti airtel for their TD-LTE network in Maharashtra.

—Sandeep Girotra head, Nokia Siemens Networks, India

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New Areas In India, we are clearly focused on offering software solutions, so one may witness more CEM deployments by operators. Alongside CEM, we are aggressively pursuing TD-LTE partnerships with BWA license winners and exploring opportunities in transport segments.

Top 10

Managing Well Managed services and mobile packet solutions have helped NSN in a big way

011 saw unveiling of new strategy by NSN. The strategy focused on mobile broadband and restructuring aimed at improving the company’s competitiveness and productivity. The focus was also on reducing operating expenses and production overheads. Keeping in view the broadband focus, the company acquired majority of wireless network infrastructure assets of Motorola Solutions in April 2011 and expanded its operations by adding new products and services. All this helped the company to remain in the leadership position by providing end-to-end services in mobile broadband. In India, the company leads packet core market as it handles data traffic for 250 mn subscribers. The company has implemented intelligent mobile packet core solutions for Bharti airtel, Datacom, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, and Uninor. The solution has helped operators in reducing total cost of ownership, maximizing revenue opportunities, and addressing growing bandwidth requirements. The company has implemented customer experience management (CEM) for Bharti airtel for optimizing and enriching user experience. The CEM platform helps in maintaining and storing real-time experience metrics for every subscriber in the network enabling Bharti airtel to proactively cater to the customer needs. For Vodafone, the company has implemented unified billing and charging solutions. This will help in boosting its data subscriber takeup, capturing new revenue streams, and reducing operating costs through simplified operations. The fiscal also saw appointment of Sandeep Girotra to lead NSN India

6 business in the country from Ashish Chowdhary. There is a lot of expectation from the new chief as he has been associated with NSN for a long time and has a lot of experience working in different capacities. The company has done pretty well on managed services and also fares well on the new trend where operators are looking for managed services partner with multi-vendor capabilities. On managed services, the company extended its contract with Bharti airtel for 5 years in 8

Revenue

FY 2011-12 (in ` crore) -3.19%

6,177 5,980

2011-12

2010-11 V&D Estimates

circles. Under the contract, NSN will manage and maintain Bharti aqirtel’s 3G and GSM networks as well as iWAN (internet Wireless Access Network), the operator’s enterprise broadband service. On 4G, the company has opened its account by bagging Bharti’s network in Maharashtra and is at par with all the vendors as everybody has got one circle each. This is considered to be the biggest deal as it covers a large state. In case of Bharti, NSN will provide network design, integration, commissioning, and optimization services and full set of care services including hardware, software and competence development services. The company is also planning to use its GNSC at Noida to remotely deliver services for improved efficiency and network performance to Bharti airtel. Plans are that the company will use its TD-LTE 6 pipes radio that reduces site space and total cost of ownership. In the fiscal, the company expanded its Chennai manufacturing facility from 35,000 to 55,000 square meters and also increased its product lines to 33. The expansion has helped NSN to export approximately 37% of the facility’s production across Asia Pacific. It will also enable the company to manufacture and distribute new multi-radio and LTE products (GSM and LTE-ready 3G base stations and its FlexiPacket radio). The company has been growing on its manpower strength due to expansion and acquisition strategy. Presently, the company employs 15,000 people (10,000 direct and 5,000 indirect) in India as it is a priority market both from delivery base and global innovation hub. The company deploys around 9,000 people in the services division. The Global Network Solutions Center (GNSC) at Noida and Chennai takes care of international as well as Indian clients. NSN has also been continuously investing in its GNSC to make it a world-class facility and has been even improving on its managed services business. Though the company has been struggling to grab deals when pitted against its Chinese counterparts on the price front, NSN has managed to build long term relationship with its existing partners in India.

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Ericsson India

‘We are responsible for 1/3rd of the 3G rollouts in India’

erformance in FY 2011-12 The highlight of 2011 was the rollout of 3G/HSPA. During the year, our strong presence in most 2G circles helped us gain a significant foothold in 3G. Ericsson was the partner of choice for leading operators like Bharti, Vodafone, Aircel, Idea, and others for 3G network rollouts and we continue to be responsible for about one-third of the existing 3G rollout in India. We have increased our managed services market share to become a leader. We signed new deals with leading operators including Bharti, Aircel, SSTL, and Idea managing the networks in multi-vendor and multi-technology environment. With Telcordia under Ericsson’s fold, our OSS/BSS portfolio has become stronger. 3G Equipment Deployment The early rollout of 3G took place in 2011 and we have established a clear lead in this area. Now operators are focusing on traffic enhancement in specific areas. Our strategy is to strengthen our position as well as increase our footprints in the ongoing network modernization. Ericsson has been the preferred partner of the leading operators in India to roll out their 3G networks. We have signed 3G deals with Bharti, Aircel, Vodafone, and Idea. Performance in Managed Services In India, we have a leading market share of managed services due to our global experience, in-depth knowledge, and understanding of the Indian market. Ericsson also has one of the highest number of base stations under our management. Now with 2G, 3G, CDMA, and landline coexisting in India, the complexity in managing end-to-end network performance has increased manifold. The year 2011 holds great significance with Ericsson signing 5 key deals with major telecom operators and service providers—Bharti, Aircel, SSTL, Idea, and Tata Sky in multi-technology and multi-vendor environment, making us a market leader in managed services. Development on Manufacturing Over the years, Ericsson India has significantly increased its local production capabilities both in terms of capacity and cutting edge technology. Early last year, another assembly line was added to increase the production capacity and we are now extending our capabilities towards exports from India.

—Fredrik Jejdling president and head of region, Ericsson India

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R&D Lab Initiative In India we have 3 R&D centers in Gurgaon, Bengaluru, and Chennai. We are doing R&D in several areas including revenue management, IP, and OSS. New Focus Areas We expect the rollout of BWA services to begin in different parts of the country by 2012. Many operators and service providers are scaling up their delivery of cloud services for their global customers.

Top 10

Preferred Partner Expertise in all of the ‘in-demand’ technologies like 3G, 4G, and mobile broadband makes Ericsson quite sought after

ndia saw 3G in 2010 and 4G in 2011 and in both the cases Ericsson was the first choice by many telcos to get the trial done. Large players like Relaince and Qualcomm had done the LTE trials with Ericsson way back in 2010 and it’s because the Swedish telecom gear maker has been an expert in all the next-generation and future technologies like 3G, 4G, and LTE. Though the company saw a dip in revenue from its Indian operations in the last fiscal compared to a year ago, it does not undermine the strength and potential of the Swedish firm. The company managed to get a good number of deals, but the size of the deals prevented it from showing a growth trajectory. Due to its association with all the Indian operators, Ericsson had big and small expansion projects in hand. Ericsson’s strong presence in the 2G circles helped it gain a significant foothold in 3G by becoming the partner of choice for leading operators like Bharti, Vodafone, Aircel, Idea, and others. Secondly, the dip in its revenue can be attributed to rupee depreciation to some extent. Ericsson signed new deals with leading operators including Bharti, Aircel, SSTL (MTS), and Idea managing the networks in multi-vendor and multitechnology environment. Ericsson is providing services in 15 telecom circles for all types of wireless technologies deployed in Bharti airtel’s network. In India the company is responsible for more than one-third of the existing 3G rollouts and is also engaged with the leading service providers for rollout of 4G networks. It has successfully conducted field trials with Reliance and Qualcomm in December 2010 demonstrating high speed mobile broadband access in a mobile environment with LTE.

7 In the managed services market the company signed new deals with leading operators including Bharti, Aircel, SSTL (MTS), and Idea. Its foray into the TV & media market has also been successful. Ericsson supplied Tata Sky, an advanced TV on-demand system that enables its 8 mn satellite subscribers to enjoy the flexibility and enhanced choice of unlimited movies on-demand and catch-up TV through Ericsson’s Media Delivery Network (MDN). Ericsson is providing

Revenue

FY 2011-12 (in ` crore) -5.3%

6,173 5,844

2011-12

2010-11 V&D Estimates

managed services for the operation and maintenance of the project. Ericsson also provides business models and partnerships to broadcasters for developing their business and competitiveness. The offering is a combination of Ericsson’s managed services and technology leadership with strategic investments in play-out operations, capability and competence. The core components of its solution are typically services related to program play-out and quality control. Ericsson manages the day-to-day play-out operations, which allows broadcasters to devote attention to their customers, content acquisition, content rights and strategic planning. The offering ensures that the broadcasters are able to meet the increasing commercial and technological complexity and competition in the TV market. Ericsson strengthened its OSS/BSS portfolio by acquiring Telcordia last year, and around 2,600 employees joined in. With this, Ericsson was able to manage a prominent combined market share of prepaid charging systems. Offering solutions that span from fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) with VDSL2 for fast-time-to market and a maximized reuse of the existing copper network; fiberto-the-business (FTTBiz) for high margin revenue; fiber-to-the-building (FTTB) for capturing new market segments; to fiberto-the-home (FTTH) as the ultimate end goal, the company is in partnership with Radius Infratel for the deployment of FTTH in 600,000 households and businesses in India with it’s EDA 1,500 GPON providing internet speeds of 100 Mbps. Ridding high on its R&D front, Ericsson invested close to SEK 33 bn in 2011 in research and development. The company is the largest holder of essential patents for wireless communication, with over 90 license agreements and 30,000 patents. Having 3 R&D centers in Gurgaon, Bengaluru, and Chennai, the company is doing R&D in several areas including revenue management, IP, and OSS. Holding a strong portfolio of 30,000 patents in wireless infrastructure, Ericsson today has the most robust wireless intellectual portfolio.

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Tech Mahindra

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;We bagged big deals from top operators in North Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

evenue Growth in FY 2011-12 The top 2 customers are BT and AT&T. Rest of the world which includes India, Asia, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand has grown by 48%.

Reasons for Growth Growth has been faster for service providers vis-a-vis equipment players. For service providers, the business is either through direct partnership or through network vendors. Large telcos are looking at both network and IT services together as they are focusing on enterprise in a big way. The customer sees the difference as we cater to both network and IT services and this has helped us in increasing our revenues. Orders Bagged We are doing global sales transformation for one of the telcos. We have bagged multi-year and multi-million deals from an European telco for unified ticketing system. We are doing multi-million and multi-year orders for tier-1 operators in North America for customer care and mediation for 4G (IT and network combined). We are also doing 3G and LTE device certification for a tier-1 and other North American telcos. M2M Capabilities M2M is becoming big and we have invested in this technology last year by forming M3 (M cube). This is a joint effort by Tech Mahindra, Mahindra Satyam, and Mahindra & Mahindra. Tech Mahindra brings core telecom expertise in both networks, platforms, and OSS/BSS. Mahindra Satyam brings vertical expertise like BFSI, manufacturing, health, education and Mahindra & Mahindra is focusing on automotive and telematics. We are seeing a lot of M2M traction in North American markets and even the Indian telcos are going for it. New Revenue Opportunities We have made investments in LTE (lab in Noida), M2M (lab in Pune), cloud (lab in Pune and Hyderabad), and customer experience center in Dallas. There is a big opportunity in big data both for global and Indian operators. There is lot of vendor consolidation opportunity in Europe. IT and network opportunity is also becoming big. We work closely with Microsoft and some of the technology partners. With a technology partner, we have launched telco-in-a-box which comes pre-integrated with Microsoft CRM and convergent billing so that MVNOs, tier-2 and -3 operators can launch their operations fast.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Raju Wadalkar CTO, Tech Mahindra

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Key Trends in FY 2012-13 In developed economies like North America, the focus is on monetization of LTE services for enterprises. Here, the focus is on network and IT domain. M2M, enterprise mobility, cloud, and other advanced services are becoming big. The focus is on vendor consolidation and rationalization. The focus is also on integrating testing across network and IT.

Top 10

Imprinting Success Leaving footprints of impressive performance in FY12, Tech Mahindra marches ahead with a promising future

ech Mahindra, over the years, has strengthened its portfolio and excelled across broad spectrum of services including business support systems (BSS), operations support systems (OSS), network design and engineering, nextgeneration networks, mobility solutions, security consulting, and testing. With total revenue at Rs 5,321 crore in FY12, the company showed steady growth of 5% over FY11 considering the overall telecom software market only grew 7% last fiscal. The consistent growth can be attributed to the multiple deals it bagged during the last fiscal, not only on home grounds but also globally. Excelling in its offerings, the company added many global clients to its kitty last fiscal. A leading European telco chose Tech Mahindra for managing the operation and delivery of Vendor Access Services (VAS). The Mahindra Group owned company also signed a deal with a leading global telco for transformation of its sales operations system. The company also won a a multi-year multimillion dollar deal to provide production support for mission critical applications covering customer care and mediation processes in the areas of LTE (mobility 4G) and IT network delivery for a tier-I operator in North America. This was not all, the company won another multi-year deal with a European telco for managing its unified ticketing system implementation. As a part of this deal, Tech M will be implementing BMC ITSM suite in two of the client’s European locations. With this win, the Pune headquartered firm made a promising entry into the client’s ‘preferred suppliers list for OSS domain’. The list does not end here. Bahrain based internet service provider, Me-

8 natelecom appointed Tech Mahindra to manage operation & business support systems for its WiMax 16e network expansion. Tech M also collaborated with Red Knee and launched ‘telco-in-a-box‚ solution at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona. On home grounds, Tech M along with Mahindra Satyam announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) for broad collaboration in the field of analytics for the telecom vertical. The

Revenue

FY 2011-12 (in ` crore) 5.24%

5,321 5,056

2011-12

2010-11 V&D Estimates

MoU will leverage companies domain strengths and leadership along with ISI’s academic brilliance in the field of analytics to develop joint solutions in data mining and data analytics. Tech M inaugurated performance engineering lab in Pune demonstrating commitment to innovation and helping the client to reduce the time-to-market and enhances end-user experience. The lab in the mould of innovation/capability factory will help Tech Mahindra to build new capabilities and also serve-as-aplatform to train the associates. The biggest strategic development the company witnessed was in the fourthquarter, ie, the merger with Mahindra Satyam. This combined entity encompasses great potential to emerge as one of India’s largest IT companies. Tech M strategically intended to progress in cloud domain as cloud adviser by opening its cloud competency lab at its Hinjewadi facility in Pune. The company plans to help its customers to choose from the best-of-breed technologies available in cloud services ecosystem. Exclusively focusing on the communications industry, Tech M is already providing mobile device and application certification services to several North American telecommunications providers and device manufacturers. To continue this legacy, Tech Mahindra inaugurated its innovation center for mobility solutions in Toronto at the 2011 Canadian Telecom Summit. Tech M made this investment in Toronto after it got selected by a Canadian telecommunications provider for certification services of mobile devices. This Toronto Innovation Center will enable Tech Mahindra (through its subsidiary for mobile applications, CanvasM Technologies) to offer mobile device certification services in a variety of areas including application testing, field testing, interoperability testing, and performance testing with expertise in 3G/HSPA+/LTE. Tech Mahindra has already invested in similar innovation labs for mobility solutions in Seattle (USA) and New Delhi (India).

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TCS

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Analytics, big data, cloud, LTE and IP were our focus areasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

evenue in FY 2011-12 The telecom vertical contributed close to 10%, $1.08 bn. During the course of the year, we have added marquee customers and won multi-year annuity deals.

Moderate Growth Considering the challenges in the industry, we believe our broad based growth across geographies has been satisfying. The customer-centric approach, domain-rich solutions, disciplined execution, investments in game-changing technologies, and newer delivery models are enabling TCS to post a better y-o-y growth. Top 5 Geographies TCS has significant presence across all the major geographies and has grown across all the geographies. We foresee opportunities for growth in all the regions we operate in. Top 5 Technologies TCS is focused on building and consolidating its offerings looking at the changes in the priorities and focus of the service providers as well as the equipment vendors. Next generation analytics, big data, cloud based solutions, LTE and IP Networking, and enterprise mobility including M2M, etc, are some of the key focus areas. India Opportunities The growth of Indian telecom has resulted in opportunities like: Mobile payments, m2m, cloud, big data, and mobile advertising, etc. Furthermore there are IT services demands because of certain network expansion. Going forward, opportunities will lie in market consolidation as well. There will be continued demand for a robust infrastructure, next-gen telecom equipment, devices led by the growth of telecom networks. We are focused on building, piloting, and consolidating the offerings in the areas of next generation analytics, big data, cloud-based solutions, LTE and IP networking, and enterprise mobility including M2M, etc. with leading customers. Increasing Market Share TCS enjoys a strong position in the industry by virtue of a unique proposition of full services capabilities and a global network delivery model to create business value for the customers and help them optimize their operations and execute new growth initiatives. We will continue to sustain our leadership and be a partner of choice for our customers by investing for the future.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;N Sivasamban vice president and global head, telecom, TCS

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Strategy for FY 2012-13 To invest and build solutions for revenue enhancement, productivity enhancement, and lean operations across businesses, to be a trusted business partner, adviser, and a full-service player in terms of innovation, operations, and services delivery to drive non-linear growth opportunities.

Top 10

Bravo! TCS secured impressive growth of 17% in FY12 and is showing signs of a much better performance ahead

ver the years, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has forayed into newer business verticals with no looking back and has gained success. The company rides on building and consolidating its offerings, looking at the changes in priorities and focus of service providers as well as the equipment vendors. FY12 adds another feather to their cap of success. TCS showed impeccable growth of 17% with revenue accounting to `5,171 crore. the company is swearing on next-generation analytics, big data, cloud based solutions, LTE and IP networking and enterprise mobility including M2M for the coming years. TCS has invested in 3G and LTE space from 2 main perspectivesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;solutions for decreased time-to-market for equipment vendors and deployment solutions for validation and integration services for operators and service providers. Certain ready-to-access frameworks and solution accelerators for product development and test automation have successfully been leveraged by some of the equipment vendors leading to product engineering revenues for TCS. TCS launched the development of the Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) Automated Test Suite (CATS), a solution that enables clients to test their compliance with CDMI specifications, while simultaneously accelerating the development lifecycle of CDMI. TCS was chosen and partnered with many companies from varied verticals, which gave TCS a sharp jump in revenues. TCS added many new marquee customers with potential, which is laying a good foundation for the future. For the Indian telecom carriers segment, TCS integrated and deployed

9 the OSS/BSS solutions required for the advanced networks. In addition to this, TCS has also provided testing services, service management, and launch readiness test for quick and smooth launch of its services, one of the key engagements being in the BWA space. On the world map, TCS pinned many deals this fiscal. One of the large European telcos has partnered with TCS to restructure their application and infrastructure management services. A large broadband and telecom-

Revenue

FY 2011-12 (in ` crore) 16.5%

5,171 4,437

2011-12

2010-11 V&D Estimates

munications player in Europe and Latin America selected TCS for service management & integration in a deal valuing over `10 crore. In the banking and insurance vertical, TCS bagged key wins. A leading US insurer has selected TCS in a multi-year program that aims to re-architect its policy and customer management application portfolio and drive greater agility in product development, integrated marketing, and customer experience management. In another partnership, a large insurance company has selected TCS as a strategic partner in its initiative to transform its entire business line. A leading North American bank chose TCS as its strategic partner for providing end-to-end solutions for its wealth management portfolio. A large Japanese banking group has selected TCS Bancs Corporate Actions for its US operations. A leading bank in Latin America opted for TCS to be its IT and business solutions partner. A leading pharmaceutical company chose TCS for quality assurance and process compliance services. A leader in the energy products and services market in North America opted for TCS for its application management and development services. A European apparel retailer chose TCS for application development and testing services. TCS has also been selected by a leading grocery retailer of the US to deliver end-to-end infrastructure services on a managed services model. TCS is currently its strategic global vendor for IT services. A leading international automotive retailer has chosen TCS to support, develop, and globally rollout its dealer & retail management program. Bagging a major government deal, TCS will be an implementation partner for a region under the restructured accelerated power development and reform program being run by the ministry of power. A leading global smart devices manufacturing company awarded a multi-million dollar managed services deal to TCS to provide application maintenance and support services for its core business processes of supply chain, order management, sales and finance functions.

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ALCATEL-LUCENT

‘Growth continued in organics and optics business’

evenue Performance Last year we set the objectives of profitable growth, increased relevance to our partners offering our entire solution portfolio. If I look back, there was a general slowdown in the sector affecting one and all but we did make substantial progress. The contribution to the business increased, we saw rapid growth in our strategic industries portfolio which serves telecom needs of defense, smart cities, and transport sector and a continued momentum on our next-generation IP and optics portfolio translating into new customers as well as increasing our share of wallet within our existing customer base. We saw continued organic growth in optics and services business. We also introduced new technologies like 100 G and bagged major share in the GPON market and also penetrated the data center interconnect market with our next-gen 1830 PSS portfolio. Wireless win with Indian Airforce and Reliance Infocomm and IP wins with airtel were some key wins. 4G Deployment India launched 3G services in 2011-12 and that enables mobile broadband connectivity for millions of Indian consumers, who want to use multimedia and video in their communication. So, 4G will help solve the challenge of digital connectivity beyond voice. As each operator fine tunes their strategy to monetize the ‘connected world’, the differentiation would be what content offers and at what quality of experience. Managed Services We continue to lead the multi-vendor managed services space in India and we continue to invest in bringing in more expertise to go up the value chain. Customers see value in the new approach of MSQA (managed services quality assurance) that we are modeling, which goes beyond the traditional model of managing KPIs. We did grow our multi-vendor managed services footprint last year with one additional new customer. Broadband Performance We sustain our leadership in the broadband segment just like last year. Overall broadband access portfolio—including ADSL, VDSL, GPON continues to grow. In GPON, we bagged 75% market share last year. Bell Labs Update Innovation is the core of Alcatel-Lucent’s DNA. We continue to invest heavily in R&D and innovations and continue to bring to the industry some of the game changers like light radio or brand new core router 7950 XRS family.

—Munish Seth president and MD, Alcatel-Lucent India

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Focus Areas India’s economy is evolving and both operators and vendors are benefiting and growing with the industry. Keeping this dynamic environment in mind, we continue to see some strong engagements and are introducing portfolios that will be relevant to the Indian market. We will continue to play to our strength—that of bringing value to our customers.

Top 10

Gearing Up... Routing, IP, and optics helped Alcatel-Lucent gain inroads into operators and enterprises

lcatel-Lucent is focusing on mobile broadband in a big way by helping operators provide complete solutions so that they can provide qualitative experience to end consumers. In this direction, the company formed a JV with Reliance Industries to provide technology consultancy, helping Reliance deploy pan-India broadband wireless access network in a holistic way. It is expected that Reliance Industries will start services by the end of 2012. In the fiscal, the company has done well and bagged some prestigious projects. The company bagged an order of over `300 crore from Indian Air Force to deploy WCDMA based portable wireless network covering many Air Force stations across India. This is a captive 3G mobile network for its air warriors and will offer lot of value added services. The network is planned to be integrated with Air Force network once it is completed. The company has also bagged a major EV-DO expansion deal with an operator and IP deal with airtel. The IP win with airtel will help in creating access network based on Carrier Ethernet technology (CEN) enabling the operator to deliver faster mobile broadband speed to its customers. The IP network will allow Bharti airtel to meet the surging bandwidth requirements of customers while accessing data, video, and internet services on an array of devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops. On the employee front, the company has around 10,000 employees of which over 3,000 engineers and scientists are working in R&D labs spread across 4 cities—Gurgaon, Noida, Chennai, and Bengaluru. The company also has Bell Labs

10 research center located in Bengaluru which focuses on technologies related to mobile application platforms, wireless communications, low-cost connectivity, mobile payment, sensor network technology, mobile content delivery, and cognitive radios. The fiscal also saw rapid growth in strategic industries like: Smart cities, defense, and transport. The company also saw continued organic growth in optics and services business. The company introduced new technologies

Revenue

FY 2011-12 (in ` crore) 25.8%

3,786

3,010

2011-12

2010-11 V&D Estimates

like 100G in Indian networks, next-gen PTN solutions, and data interconnect optical switches in 2 new networks. The company bagged major share in the GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) market by supplying solutions to 3 players—Velocis, Sterlite, and others. For example, Sterlite’s FiON a (fiber optic access network) powered by Alcatel is a fiber-to-the-home/premises (FTTx) technologies carries high speed connectivity right into the premises. On managed services, the company has done pretty well by managing RCom network. This is also the largest multivendor/multi-technology managed services footprint in India. The company has also added Uninor for managed services thereby enlarging its footprint in the country. Recently, the company has bagged IN (intelligent network) deal for BSNL to be deployed in northern and eastern region. The company has already been managing IN deal for the western region. On the enterprise side, the company has done extremely well through data center technology and OpenTouch conversations. The company is pretty strong in hospitality and manufacturing sector. A global animations and multimedia company has deployed data center technologies for India and global data centers in the US. The company is also focusing on delivering complete range of solutions including LAN, WLAN, GPON, IP Telephony, and unified communications by providing enriching experience through room telephones, room automation, integration into complete ecosystem. Major international and local chains in the hospitality have chosen Alcatel technology for most of their properties. Many steel manufacturer’s have also chosen Alcatel technology to meet their voice solution needs. The company is making inroads into IP and routing and combined with optics, coupled with some big ticket orders in the pipeline, it would help Alcatel-Lucent go a long way to capture the mobile broadband space.

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DEVICE Review Micromax Funbook

Fun with Funbook

With attractive looks and comparatively lower price tag, Micromax Funbook is set to give a tough fight to its competitors

ablets, tablets everywhere but not more than 3 or 4 fit your bill. Yes, that is the situation in Indian tablet market where tablets are flooding the market exactly the same way that mobile handsets flooded it a couple of years back and still the trend is going on. Once major players like Samsung and Apple’s tablet became available here and consumers realized the utility of the uber cool mobile gadget, many Indian and global companies started coming in herds to showcase their stuff to the Indian consumers. Even mobile operators are not spared in the race of launching few tablets with a bundled offer. Though there are 30 varieties of tablets from various manufacturers available here, not more than 2 or 3 products from the prominent players are able to give the kind of user experience that the tablet was created for. However user experiences vary with user expectations. In the era of cars like Nano, which is built just to meet the basic objective of making the travel easy and overlooking sheer driving pleasure, not many Indian users expect a tablet to be always an iPad or Galaxy Tab. Tablets like Aakash, Ira, and Micromax Fun-

Micromax and Tata photon have partnered to offer this service. However a SIM card slot could have been a better option. The tablet offers three physical buttons—home, menu, and back—that gives the tablet a cheap look with the plasticky structure. These buttons were not required as the tablet uses the latest version of android OS and is a full-touch screen device. The bottom end (in portrait mode) of the device is home to a myriad of ports such as mini-SD, HDMI adaptor (sold separately), memory card, 3.5 mm jack and the charger. book too do exist in the Indian market and they too have their cut of customers. Let’s now look at the hugely successful Indian handset maker Micromax‘s latest offering in the tablet market— the Funbook.

Hardware The Micromax Funbook priced below `7,000 has pretty decent specifications with a dual Mali 1.22 GHz Cortex A8 processor and runs on the latest version of Android for smartphones and tablets—Ice Cream Sandwich. For a mobile device which is built mostly for accessing the web and multitasking, the tablet desires to have a processor speed of more than 1 GHz and Funbook just has that. Built with a 7-inch display board with multi-touch capabilities, the Funbook allows HD video playback at 1080p and also offers the HDMI output for you to play your desired media content on external display at home. The tablet comes with 4 GB internal storage and can be expanded up to 32 GB. It is also accompanied with a VGA front camera but lacks a rear camera. Connecting to the internet is available only through Wi-Fi or one can use the data cards being offered by Tata Teleservices.

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Software The upgradation to the Ice Cream Sandwich OS from its earlier version—Honeycomb—which gives the user a much better experience in using various apps with more smoothness. The full GPU acceleration on the latest OS does not only facilitate a more flamboyant UI but also a smoother one. Multitasking has been taken care of by the company beyond expectations. Running multiple apps simultaneously does not give the lagging feel. At the same time, quitting apps has been made very simple. The best part which could be seen as a marketing trick on seeing the hype over Aakash tablet, Micromax has promoted this tablet as an instrument for education. The tablet comes preloaded with content from publishers like Pearson, Everonn, and Vriti. In addition to this, Zenga TV is also preloaded for watching live TV. Overall, at a price tag of `6,499 and keeping our expectations according to the price, the Micromax Funbook is worth buying and steers clear of its competitors in that category. Ritu Singh ritus@cybermedia.co.in

DEVICE Review

Not OK!

For consumers cheap price is okay but cheap user experience is not, and that’s what the Wishtel Ira is all about Tech Specs  7” capacitive and resistive touch screens  VIA WonderMedia PRIZM WM8650

ARM SoC

 720p HD video support  802.11b/g WiFi  3G WCDMA EVDO USB dongle support  UBS 2.0 port  Google Android 2.2

ablets made an entry into the Indian market barely a couple of years back, and all of a sudden the market is inundated with these devices—some from the major global players like Apple, Samsung and Motorola, and some from the other ‘not-so-known’ manufacturers based out of China and Taiwan. Keeping the ever growing Indian telecom space and a market for a billion people in mind, many an Indian player has also jumped into the rat race. Wishtel, an Indian company, joined the Indian tablet bandwagon with the launch of two tablet devices at the fag end of the last fiscal. The company that is believed to be entrusted with the responsibility of manufacturing Akash 2 tablets for the government under its National Mission on Education through ICT and sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resource, has launched two tablets—Ira and Ira Thing— priced between `4,000 and `5,500.

Hardware The difference is very little, in their configuration as well as in their prices. The Ira has a resistive touch screen, 256 RAM, and 2 GB internal memory, and the Ira Thing comes with capacitive single touch screen, 512 RAM, and 4 GB memory.

These tablets feature a 7-inch display, a 800 MHz processor made by Via, have a full USB port, a mini USB port, and have support for external memory cards. Notably, these tablets support USB modems and have built-in Wi-Fi 802.11 b/ g capabilities. On the battery front, Wishtel has packed the IRA tablets with a 2,800 mAh battery and these claim five hours of battery life on Wi-Fi and 3G modes and three hours of video playback. Though the company has tried its best to put everything into the device at a price point at what even a decent looking mobile phone fails to fit, the tablet struggles to convince a potential buyer why they should go for it. No way, the tablets are going to be the first digital device that any Indian customer would hold for the first time in his life. Tablets solve a very specific purpose and when the purpose is not solved as desired, products tend to crash in the market. Many of the tablets available in the Indian market including that of Wishtel fall in that category.

Software Both the devices, Ira and Ira Thing, come with the Android 2.3 OS. As far as preloaded apps are concerned an internet browser, media player, photo viewer, office document editor, Skype, and iRead apps are pro-

vided. Though it supports Wi-Fi, connecting to the internet through Wi-Fi appear to be very troublesome. Many a time, it fails to recognize the open Wi-Fi hotspots around. The good part about the tablet is that the company has brought this device with local language support, which would definitely help many Indians living in rural areas to learn through their own mother tongue. At first look it gives the impression of any other tablet but the moment you start using the device, you start getting irritated even before you start experimenting with its various features. The device feels cranky and cheap. Price-wise it’s cheap, so good—but if it gives a cheap user experience—that’s not for me. The app icons do not respond to touch as they ought to—at times they demand a hard press, as if they are physical buttons. You do not expect that in a touch screen device. Well, cost should not be the excuse here. Wishtel Ira comes with a single physical button on the front to activate a ‘go back’ application. Most of the times a hard press is required to activate the button. Wish, Wishtel would look at user experience and not just the budget for its future products. Gyana Ranjan Swain gyanas@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JUNE 2012 | VOICE&DATA | 165

PERSPECTIVE

NTP 2012: A Good Beginning The National Telecom Policy 2012 (NTP 2012) has finally been approved by the Union Cabinet. It is a welcome move by the government as one can now look at things afresh and all this can now speed up telecom activity in the country. All the stakeholders have to now work hard to achieve the objectives of NTP 2012. In terms of statistics, the policy talks about increasing rural teledensity from present 39 to 70 by 2017 and 100 by 2020. This is a good move but the way current spectrum prices have been designed by Trai and future spectrum prices will be based on last auction price, the task looks highly impossible since affordability will be a big issue in rural areas. The demand of telecom services is inversely proportional to telecom tariffs, so focus should be on keeping tariffs low. To achieve this, the government has to come up with some innovative ways to reach 100% rural teledensity within 8 years. With respect to broadband, NTP 2012 talks about broadband for all and even download speed has been increased from 512 Kbps to 2 Mbps. The increase in download speed will result in reduction of broadband connections which presently hovers around 13 mn. Operators need to see how they can increase broadband connectivity and achieve 175 mn broadband connections by 2017 and 600 mn connections by 2020. This is not an easy task and operators need to brainstorm on how to provide value for money. Even bandwidth prices need to be cut drastically so that one can achieve their numbers comfortably. Also, operators need to create a sturdy broadband infrastructure for data-hungry applications of future. Making India a global hub is one of the key objectives of NTP 2012 but this looks to me the most difficult task as one has to start from scratch. The value addition clause will be a big plus but it has to be implemented seriously by the government. DoT should also see that 80% of the local demand is met through domestic manufacturing which will give a big push to India in becoming a global hub for telecom manufacturing. Also, local manufacturers have to set up their base outside India so that one can book export orders from Asian and African countries. For manufacturing to succeed, the government has to set up a complete ecosystem. The government should encourage companies to plan and invest in the country as China presently has over capacities and companies are planning to de-risk their business by investing in new locations and India seems to be an ideal location. The government needs to package manufacturing in such a way that investors get their return on investment. Even time-bound clearances for manufacturing companies will be a big plus as it will help them in building capacities without any cost escalation. Full mobile number portability and free roaming will be a big plus for the consumers but operators will have a tough time to see how they can recover their revenue loss and adjust them with the growing traffic. Allowing voice over IP will be a big advantage but before commenting one has to see the complete nitties and gritties on what has been allowed and what not. It is good to see government embracing new technologies like cloud computing and IPV6 and they should be the first to implement these in their respective departments to see the real benefit and then go for mass scale deployment. All this is good but the government should have also ensured that the final policy approved by the Union Cabinet should also be made available to all stakeholders so that bureaucracy can be minimized and India can achieve the objectives of NTP 2012. Pravin Prashant pravinp@cybermedia.co.in

166 | VOICE&DATA | JUNE 2012 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

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