With over three decades of presence in telecom, Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has been silently adding value to the telecom products and making the best of the open market conditions. Through its Kotdwara and Bangalore plants, BEL is expected to have done a total business of Rs 116 crore, the revenue mainly coming from switching equipment sales. The entire telecom business of BEL is DoT driven. The reason for this is that BEL is into open tender game and it has been the erstwhile DoT, which was the biggest buyer, and in the new networks scenario hardly there are any open tenders. Nonetheless, the company has been growing due to the competitive pricing of its products at higher quality.

Products developed indigenously have contributed to nearly 65 percent of BEL sales. Further, a modern VLSI Design Center for working out contemporary designs to meet emerging demands of converging technologies on a wider front has been another key initiative. BEL has diversified its product offering to universal emergency communication systems, Point to Multi-point Radio (PMP Radio), Main Automatic Exchange XL, digital cross connects, etc.

The company is flush with cash. As such, it is looking at adding more products to its range, and alliances to compete in the rural and urban connectivity based on CDMA technology. The company is also looking at opportunities in the broadband arena.