The Indian PBX market is still predominantly traditional, with voice being the prime application. And within voice, it is the call-switching function that is widely used. Even the most tech-savvy people rarely use features like voicemail (that has long been available). This is largely because people have never felt the need to do more. Things, however, are changing, though only slowly.

n Market Segments: The PBX market in India can broadly be divided into two segments. The first one is the volume market, which sees PBX system as a mere call transfer device with no urge to use its other capabilities. The other one is the high-end value-driven market, which looks at PBX as a convergence device, the center of all voice, data and video traffic in an enterprise. Another emerging segment is that of IP PBX. Even though it was insignificant in 2001-02, in terms of both value and volume, it was definitely the talk of the town.

n Market Size: The EPABX market was estimated to be around Rs 450 crore in 2001–02. In terms of number of lines, 50 percent of the market is dominated by low-end PBX systems. The middle-end products account for 20 percent of the market, while high-end PBXs have a market share of 30 percent. However in value terms, high-end PBXs account for 45 percent of the market, with the rest shared by the SME and low-end segments. Besides this, revenue from services also forms a significant portion of the vendors’ income.

EXPERTS PANEL A Sethuraman, director (broadband networking division), Alcatel India Manish Sablok, national marketing manager, Tata Telecom Ltd Pramodh Menon, business development manager, Cisco Systems India & SAARC Rajesh Tuli, managing director, Coral Telecom

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