Less than five years back, PBX was not central to business, but today many enterprises rely on it to offer them competitive advantage. Then it was just a voice switch; today it is a switch that can also facilitate data and video communication. In other words, it is the protagonist that would make convergence possible.

However, not all PBXs are like that. Nor would every enterprise need a PBX that is a powerful convergence tool. The Indian PBX market is still predominantly traditional with voice being the prime application. Things, however, are changing.

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.

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.

There were not more than 10 installations of pure-IP PBXs during the year 2001-02.

The KTS market size is estimated to be around Rs 100 crore. National Panasonic is clearly the leader in the KTS business. It commands an estimated 30 percent share in the KTS market. Competition in the KTS market appears to be geographic in nature, with different vendors dominating different regions. In north and west India, National Panasonic, Siemens, and NEC along with Tata Telecom (Arya range), are the preferred brands. Ericsson is popular in south India.

Prices: The average price per port in the low-end ranges from Rs 1,500 and Rs 3,000. Vendors targeting at the SME market are offering per port ranging from Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000. The average price per port of the high-end PBX is Rs 5,000 and beyond.

Vendors: It appears that both Tata Telecom and Siemens enjoy almost equal market share in the high-end PBX market, followed by Nortel, Alcatel, and NEC. Both Tata Telecom and Siemens sold 1,50,000 ports each, in the year 2001-02. Cisco is clearly the market leader in pure-IP switches.

The medium- and low-end categories are dominated by names like National Panasonic, Coral Telecom, Intellicon, Enkay, and Accord. Syntel, Matrix, Crompton Greaves, Voice Gate, and Gold Star, are other vendors in this segment. Many of these vendors also offer IP-enabled switches.

Ravi Shekhar Pandey