Telecom equipment and product segment growth declined marginally in 2011-12 financial year at Rs 1,13,188 crore mainly due to policy uncertainty and low spending by operators in the backdrop of huge price paid by them for airwaves at auction held in 2010, says a study.
The estimation done by telecom journal Voice&Data showed that the turnover of telecom equipment and devices segment in the country declined by 0.83% compared to Rs 1,14,133 crore in 2010-11 fiscal year.
"The policy uncertainty checked investment in the sector. Further, the spending from telecom operators was below expectation as they are still recovering from the huge price paid for 3G and BWA spectrum in 2010. Enterprise were also cautious in spending," V&D Editor Praveen Prashant told PTI.
Telecom operators jointly paid around Rs 1.06 lakh crore for purchasing airwaves in 2010.
Prashant added that operators did not expand their network which was reflected in the balance sheet of equipment manufacturers.
The telecom journal found most of the mobile handset brands flooding India market disappearing in FY'12 and only around 12 to 15 brands were visible on most of the stores.
The biggest segment of carrier equipment, mainly used for signal transmission, declined by 5% to Rs 55,333 crore in FY'12 from Rs 58,285 crore in FY'11.
This segment was led by Nokia Siemens Network in terms of revenue at Rs 5,523 crore, followed by Ericsson at Rs 5,166 crore, Huawei at Rs 4,911 crore and Alcatel Lucent at Rs 3,002 crore, the V&D estimates showed.
The other two categories of product and end user devices saw marginal growth. Product category grew by 8.9% to Rs 23,183 crore in FY'12 from Rs 21,291 crore in FY'11.
User device category which includes mobile handset, fixed phone, data card and others grew by 0.33% to Rs 34,672 crore in FY'12 from 34,557 crore in FY'11, the study said.
Finnish handset maker Nokia retained its leadership position in handset segment with 38.2% market share followed by Samsung with 25.3% share, it said.
The study found that despite decline in revenue by 7.77%, Nokia emerged as biggest telecom company among all with revenues of Rs 11,925 crore in FY'12 compared to its estimated revenue of Rs 12,929 crore in FY'11.
"Tablet was a new device to India in 2011 but the last fiscal saw Indian consumers embracing the product with open arms. It grew close to 750%. From a mere Rs 231 crore in 2011, it grew to Rs 1,962 crore in 2012," Prashant said.
Samsung led the Indian tablet market with 56.52% market share, the study added.
