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In an effort to keep a close watch at the telecom industry and its business, the annual survey done by Voice&Data has zeroed in on various companies contributing to different segments of the telecom sector. With an open market structure such as that of India, and with vast business potential, stepping-in of global companies, India is no more a news now. The news is: who scales the peak. Though companies come and go, some come with great promises and stay here. This special issue picks up a few dark horses that have huge potential and could be the fittest players in their respective fields, in the years to come.

ZTE
In the field of wireless products, the Chinese giant ZTE is a force to reckon with. Although it had to confront various relevant as well as non-relevant growth hampering factors, in India, ZTE has shown substantial growth, besides in its own territory.

In India, it has registered revenue of $220 mn in 2005 and hopes to attain the milestone of $400 mn by the end of 2006. It has bagged projects from Tata Teleservices in the rural areas and CDMA infrastructure expansion for BSNL. Not to be left behind in the race, it has placed a bid for a 3G-infrastructure expansion for MTNL, along with the traditional big players in this field such as Ericsson, Motorola, and Siemens. ZTE has already started supplying CDMA and FWT handsets to companies such as Tata Teleservices and talks are on to replicate the same with Reliance. If materialized, then it could put up a tough fight for other handset suppliers in India.

AxessTel
One more company, having great deal of promises, is Axesstel. With product line-ups such as desktop phones, fixed wireless terminals, broadband EV-DO modem, and 3G broadband gateways, it has successfully been able to make its mark among Indian telecom biggies. Tata Teleservices and BSNL are its key customers. Again, its close strategic alliance with XL Telecom furthers its growth, as they together applied for purchase orders. The recent example is the tender awarded to them to ship 350,000 Axesstel low cost fixed wireless desktop phones based on its L800 platform. Axesstel has received an initial purchase order from XL Telecom for the partial fulfillment of this award.  In October 2005, Axesstel has received a multi-million dollar purchase order for multiple CDMA-based wireless phones from Tata Teleservices, and shipments had started in December. Though the first quarter result for 2006 does not look that healthy, but with some big orders in hand, it would not be wise for the industry to underestimate this US based company.

Sasken
Another company that could make big waves in the telecom industry is Bangalore-based Sasken, who provides embedded telecom software solutions to its clients. Sasken's customer profile includes some of the global Fortune 500 companies such as Nortel, Nokia, and Motorola. Recently, Sasken Communication Technologies has acquired Chennai-based Integrated SoftTech Solutions (iSoftTech) for $1.45 mn, which will help Sasken get the advantage of iSoftech's expertise in data networking, VoIP, and wireless segments.

At the revenue front, Sasken's growth is a must watch. The consolidated revenues for the year ended March 31, 2006 stood at Rs 308 crore, in comparison to Rs 241.7 crore last year, registering a growth of 27%. The Profit After Tax (PAT) for FY 06 before the exceptional item was Rs 29.6 crore, translating to a growth of 30% over the previous year.

Sasken's strategic shift from a licensing model to a royalty model has started paying off, as it realized royalty revenues from a leading Japanese handset manufacturer, who ships 3G handsets embedded with Sasken's multimedia solutions. It has also incorporated a development center in China and raised its headcount to more than 2,500. So, it seems Sasken is focused on its mission to be a global leader.

Subex
This company, which operates in the niche area of telecom revenue maximization, shows a great potential. It partners with telcos to maximize revenue by offering comprehensive and flexible solutions.

If its overall global growth is taken into consideration, in the recent past, Subex has added two more feathers in its cap by acquiring the US-based Mantas, and the UK-based Azure Solutions. With this acquisition, Subex will have 23 out of 40 big telecom companies of the world as part of its customer base and around 150 installations in 60 countries. In terms of financial highlights, its revenue grew by 55% to reach Rs 1,812 mn, while PAT also grew by 55% to reach Rs 391 mn. With these figures, Subex is now clearly ahead of its nearest competitor and has over 25% shares in a fragmented market.

Huawei
Among the Chinese companies in India, Huawei is certainly getting a lot of attention. This company is emerging as a strong mobile handset manufacturer in the global 3G and CDMA handset markets, while having formed strategic partnership with Vodafone regarding 3G handsets. Huawei is becoming one of the main CDMA terminal vendors in the Indian market and its customers mainly are major telecom operators such as Tata, Reliance, BSNL, and MNTL. It has already supplied 50,000 FWTs to Reliance, 20,000 to MTNL, and 6,25,000 to BSNL. Till now the bulk of the revenue for Huawei comes from BSNL and MTNL tenders. In the last financial year, it has accumulated revenue of $110 mn and with Motorola bagging 8 lakh GSM line expansion for MTNL, Huawei will provide the switch.

UTStarcom
With investments over more than $50 mn since its establishment in India, this company is all set to grow in the right path. In the recent past, UTStarcom has signed an expansion contract with BSNL to deploy 90,000 lines of Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (IP DSLAM) solution in the operator's growing nationwide broadband network. This contract represents an expansion on a previously announced deployment of its AN-2000 IP DSLAM and related equipment for the second phase of BSNL's National Internet Backbone (NIB) project. The companies services include Rolling-Stream IPTV solution for  broadcast-quality TV and on-demand entertainment; the Moving-Media 2000 product portfolio for CDMA operators; and the Continuity FMC solution for wireline and wireless carriers.

GIL
The newly christened GIL, which is the 100% subsidiary of GTL, shows great amount of potential in the telecom arena. This company focuses on providing infrastructure services in telecom and BPO, and will engage in projects on BOT and BOO models (that means GIL will act as an infrastructure provider). In its forthcoming business plans, this company has signed an MoU for providing infrastructure for 200 sites in Karnataka and Punjab circles under BOO model. From this, the cumulative revenue is expected to be Rs 80 crore over a period of 10 years. In the eastern circle, the company is at its final stage of talks with a cellular operator regarding development of 573 new sites, which could add another Rs 300 crore over a period of 20 years. With strategic relationship with telecom vendors such as Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, Nortel and Alcatel and expansion plan in international operations in six to eight countries, the estimated value of projects and contracts are in the range of 1,000 crores over the next fiscal year and it is expected to raise upto Rs 3,000 crore the next three years.

With telecom among the fastest growing industries, and operators and BPO players finding ways to cut down operational cost, GIL sees a rosy picture ahead.

vadmail@cybermedia.co.in