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FY 2002–03 saw Microtek, one of the leading players in the dial-up space, exiting from the market altogether. This was indicative of the state of affairs in the near future. Around 90 percent of dial-up modems sold were internal. Also responsible for this downslide was the disastrous state of affairs of ISPs, particularly the regional ones. The condition of cable modem market deteriorated further with some of the cable ISPs like BSES going for Ethernet-to-the-home.

The Market and the Trends
The segment did business worth Rs 179 crore in the year 2002–03, down from Rs 252 crore during 2001–02. This negative growth of 29.9 percent was largely owing to a decline in the per unit price. The overall volume saw a spurt, however.

MRO-RAD was the market leader with Rs 73.6 crore, while Atrie, a Taiwanese company emerged as a surprise entry on the second spot with a revenue of Rs 24 crore. Third spot was taken by Dax whose total sales for the year stood at Rs 17.5 crore, dominating the market in south.

Around 29,000 leased line modems were sold during 2002–03. Most of these were to banking and financial institution customers who took leased lines from BSNL and MTNL, and private ISPs. On the leased line front, players like D-Link and Ascom made significant inroads.

V&D estimates	CyberMedia Research

Sale of cable modem suffered due to stagnant cable Internet business. Motorola, however, managed to sell Rs 12 crore worth of modems to RPG Netcom, Zee and British Gas. On top of it, some leading players like BSES started offering Ethernet to Home, which does not require a modem. With the introduction of Conditional Access System, a spurt in demand is expected for cable modems.

DSL modem market also remained static with hardly any activity except for the launch of DSL services by Bharti called Zinpet.

FY 2003–04 would see a spurt in activity on the Internet front, given the aggressive rollout of Internet services by Reliance, Tata Teleservices, and Bharti. Now that Dishnet has tied up with Tata Teleservices to provide Internet through DSL, the market might well see an increase in demand for DSL modems.

Sudesh Prasad