The reincarnated Hindustan Teleprinters Ltd (HTL Ltd), as telecom equipment manufacturer in the country, has seen its production and sales growth increasing continuously every year. In 2000-01,the company is estimated to make a total sales revenues of Rs 525 crore, up by 13 percent over that in 1999-00. EWSD large digital switching exchanges, C-DOT switching exchanges and Main Distribution Frames account for the bulk of its revenues. Between April and December 2000, the company revenues from DEL equipment sales stood at Rs 203.78 crore, the mechanical products and accessories at Rs 36.13 crore, and the transmission, data, and access products at Rs 24.64 crore.

Rudimentary to HTL’s success has been its ability to diversify its product portfolio. And it is able to diversify into new product categories due to its focused in-house R&D activities. In 1999-00, it invested on V-90 Bis data-only modem, V-90 subscriber end modem with DSVD option. It came up with new versions of C-DOT exchanges—SM XL and MAX XL and prototype models for CCTTT #7 signaling, ISDN etc.

Though HTL has a diversity of products, the inflicting problem is, it lacks aggressive marketing and sales and professional management. The government’s plan to implement the disinvestment commission’s recommendations of selling 74 percent of HTL’s share to a strategic partner, could be a new opportunity to be aggressive.