Technologies prevailing in the Indian market are 2G, 3G and WiMAX, and for these technologies, most chip-set designers, protocol stack developers, and telecom manufacturers are increasing their RF test capabilities in India.

The overall test and measurement (T&M) instruments market was approximately Rs. 600 crore in 2008-09 witnessing restrained growth over the previous year. Imports accounted for approximately 67 percent of the market at Rs. 400 crore while the remaining Rs. 200 crore was accounted for by the indigenous market. The market size of T&M instruments for wired technology (optical and copper) was approximately Rs. 370 crore and for wireless, it was estimated at Rs. 130 crore. The total Indian T&M market is estimated to grow up to Rs. 750 crore in FY '09-10.

Market Dynamics

The market leaders in T&M market for wired technologies were JDSU, Agilent, Exfo, and Spirent. In the wireless space Agilent rules the roost, followed by Anritsu and R&S. Over all, Agilent was the clear leader controlling more than 30 percent of the market. Agilent has changed its strategy from box-selling to system-based selling. It was followed by JDSU and Spirent in Tier 2. R&S, Tektronix, Aishwarya, Tirumala, and Trend were placed in Tier 3. Toshniwal, Anritsu, Fastech, National Instruments, Fluke Netwroks, Aplab, MEL, PDR Videotronics, and Aimil, were placed in Tier 4. Invas is the authorized distributor for Exfo, Sumitomo, and Satimo, which are also in Tier 4. Other important players in the market were Blue Star India, GL Communications, Keith Electronics, Optiwave Photonics, Scientific-Mes-Technik, Svarin, Tenet, TTL, and VXL.

Technology Update

Mobile-WiMAX, which supports high-bandwidth mobile services at speeds greater than 120 km/hour, is expected to grow substantially over the next several years. However, the ultimate success of mobile-WiMAX will be determined by the end-user experience. As the technology moves quickly from concept to design to volume production, it requires new and efficient methods of verifying the integrity and quality of subscriber handsets and similar products. Leading-edge designers developing mobile-WiMAX chipsets, modules, and devices require a solution to quickly ensure standards-compliant design performance and accelerate time-to-market. With elements of design regularly developed in different places, it is important to have common, industry-standard test tools that enable groups to share information and resolve problems quickly. The quickening rate of technology changes means a faster cycle time for new products entering the verification stage. With cutting-edge technology shipping as early as possible, interoperability and conformance testing become increasingly important to ensure that product quality and customer satisfaction is maintained.

Third-generation wireless systems, based on W-CDMA, are now being deployed world over. To ensure these systems remain competitive in the high-bandwidth future, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is developing Long Term Evolution (LTE) specifications. The LTE specifications provide a framework for increasing capacity, improving spectrum efficiency, improving coverage, and reducing latency compared with current high speed packet access (HSPA) implementations. Agilent has been one of the first movers in this space, delivering 3GPP LTE design automation tools and measurement products. The player gives design engineers working on LTE chip sets, modules, and systems the ability to design, troubleshoot, and evaluate performance of early prototype LTE transmitter and receiver designs.

The integration of video, data, and voice services (triple play) over a converged IP network places significant demands on network infrastructure equipment from the access through the core. Triple play euphoria is driving network evolution and presents new test challenges to network equipment manufacturers and service providers developing and deploying IPTV delivery equipment and services. Agilent's Network Tester integrates real-world application traffic generation with comprehensive passive analysis and distributed test capabilities. Agilent recently released the N9912A FieldFox RF Analyzer, the world's most integrated handheld instrument for wireless network installation and maintenance. It combines cable/antenna analysis, spectrum analysis, power meter measurements, vector network analysis, and a vector voltmeter into one rugged, compact, lightweight and weather-resistant package.

As the TDM networks are being gradually converted to IP based networks there is a good potential for the handy ethernet testers to ensure the network performance. Invas' model AXS-850 has enough capabilities to suit the field requirements. The mobile operators who have to test to ensure the MSC to BTS connectivity, may find AXS-850 as an appropriate product for this application. The key features of Invas' offering are'user friendliness, capable of testing up to layer 4, RFC2544 testing, and configurable for testing of electrical as well as optical ports up to gigabit Ethernet. Invas' major customers are MTNL, defence, MNCs, and major system integrators.

MD8470A Signaling Tester by Anritsu is an all in one platform supporting functional testing of mobile applications, including voice and video calling, content download, messaging etc. It converges multiple communication systems-—CDMA/HSPA/GSM/GPRS/EGPRS/CDMA2000/EVDO/TDS: CDMA and offers a wide frequency range. It can be used for handover testing, throughput testing, and roaming tests.

Aishwarya Telecom offers 2 Mbps testers and RF Power Meter which meet every specification desired by BSNL and it is approved in India by BSNL. The player claims to offer the most competitive price in Indian market without compromising on performance. It received a major order from Huawei and a smaller one for Ericsson in 2008-09.

The R&S CMW500 marks the entry of a new generation of test equipment from Rohde & Schwarz for fast and precise production tests from a basic mobile phone to the most sophisticated PDA. WiMAX has so far been specified up to 3.5 GHz, while UMTS LTE/EUTRA is below 3 GHz. Even technological developments that reach far into the future anticipate 6 GHz as the maximum frequency limit. This means that the R&S CMW500 is prepared for future developments and changes. It thus claims to offer customers maximum safety of investment.

Trend Communications is an international company designing and manufacturing test equipment to fulfill the needs of field technicians and engineers, specializing in the installation and maintenance of data, voice, video, and connectivity services and networks. TCIL's major customers are BSNL, defence, telcos, and SIs. Prem Sethi, Country Manager of Trend Communications India Limited, says "The telecommunications industry is going through a major shift in its business model. The challenge has been to broaden the services being offered with new technologies while still providing traditional services at more competitive prices and also maintaining the Quality of Service (QoS) experienced by the customer."

This growth is brought to you by...

Many factors. With the new government in place, the economy has entered into recovery mode and growth is inevitable. With the new government's industry friendly approach the industry sentiment has become more optimistic. The telecom projects that were delayed earlier are expected to commence. Before the economic meltdown started, the big drivers for growth of T&M in telecom were strong investments in manufacturing, network deployment, and new technologies.

Gautam Awasthi, GM-Marketing of Electronic Measurement Group at Agilent, says "The slowdown has had some impact on the growth story, especially in manufacturing and to some on extent R&D. However, the investments in deployment and specialized R&D are expected to grow due to strong market-fundamental and economies of scale."

Telecom growth in the country has been mainly fuelled by increasing subscriber-base, domestic demand, new licensees/players, and R&D investments in new emerging technologies like 3G, WiMAX, and LTE. Mobile number portability is another important expected growth driver for this market. Imposition of QoS norms by TRAI is also expected to enhance the demand for testing and monitoring solutions. The expectation of the subscribers and the operators are increasingly changing due to this emphasis on QoS. Growth of optical networks to carry greater bandwidths is also a result of the above expectations and opportunities. The growth that was triggered by the deregulation of the telecom industry and the issue of new licenses for different circles has spiraled into a big telecom revolution in the country. The wireless subscriber base in India is growing at a very fast rate and the way broad band's growth is being projected it will be a further shot-in-the-arm for the telecom growth in the country. This, clubbed with the near-term planned 3G and WiMAX roll-out, would fuel the growth for this sector. Since T&M is a derivative industry, these factors will drive growth in the market by virtue of association. T&M plays an important role in design, development, production, and roll-out of the telecom technologies, and would be one of the biggest beneficiaries in this era of rapid telecom growth in India.

Vasudev Tantry, General Manager of Anritsu's India operations, testifies "The growth drivers in the long term will be 3G network, WiMAX network, and FTTx network roll outs by various operators and service providers. In the medium term it will be telecom manufacturing (3G BTS/ handsets etc.), network deployments in rural areas, and R&D on new and emerging technologies like LTE."

Technologies prevailing in the Indian market are 2G, 3G and WiMAX, and for these technologies, most chip-set designers, protocol stack developers, and telecom manufacturers are increasing their RF test capabilities in India. Major telecom companies as well as the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) are expected to open test houses in the near future for catering to the needs of conformance testing on telecom products being developed in India. Greater focus on QoS and business from value-added services by operators will drive T&M investments to ensure quality service with reliability and repeatability/predictability.

Outsourcing Model

Neeraj Dhawan, Managing Director of Invas Technologies, says "Service providers are the biggest buyers of test and measurement instruments. But these days they have been outsourcing this aspect of their operation to multinational system integrators."

Bharti Airtel's deal with Alcatel Lucent has brought to the fore an increasingly important trend in the industry. Outsourcing is increasingly being picked up as an option to manage networks right upto the last mile. As service providers aim to focusing on core operations and outsource the rest, the center of demand seems to be shifting. Approximately 40 percent of the demand for T&M instruments comes from service providers, and system integrators like Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, NSN, Motorola, ZTE, Alcatel Lucent etc., raise another 40 percent among themselves. The remaining goes to sub-contractors to turnkey system integrators like GTL, Aster etc.

Another key trend is the increase in renting. Companies avoid long term capital expenditure so procuring the instruments on rent is becoming a preferred option. This also eliminates the hassle of calibrating and maintenance. Major players in the rentals space are Toshniwal, Tirumala Seven Hills. Invas is also foraying into this space besides diversifying into manufacturing and SI activity.

Challenges Ahead

G .R Manohar Reddy, managing director of Aishwarya Telecom, says "T & M business is a growing market, but as on today the procurements by the operators have come down. As the networks are becoming complex due to huge addition of subscribers, the demand for the products will be good in the coming years. The life of the testers is also not more than five years. This along with technological obsolescence will lead to repeated purchases by the operators."

In the last fiscal, before the economic meltdown started, India's T&M industry saw rapid growth, with the increasing design, R&D, manufacturing, and deployment investments in all the major customer verticals (including telecom, aerospace, defense, automotive, consumer-electronics, contract-manufacturing, semiconductors etc.). T&M plays an important role in every phase of the product life cycle (PLC), and is therefore vulnerable to the issues facing the customers at each of the PLC phases.

Design and R&D has been looking for greater innovations in products and business-models from the T&M industry. They are the ones that push the envelope for greater innovations in the new products from their T&M partners. However, this sector is also challenging the traditional selling model of the T&M industry as they are not interested in holding capital assets where they see seasonality in orders or a lower ROI.

The manufacturing, especially the high-volume manufacturing segment, is calling for innovations to lower test-costs and policies to increase turn-around-time from the T&M vendors. They are eagerly looking for solutions that can help reduce time-to-market with lower cost of production (and test). The government policies around sourcing and trade play an important role there. The deployment industry, mainly operators, are putting greater focus on QoS and business from value-added services and that will drive T&M investments to ensure quality service. The above eco-system needs to-be nurtured, protected, and well-served for an overall development of these industry verticals in the country.