DoT Secretary Says Telecom Manufacturing Ecosystem Is Growing Stronger

With the ecosystem of telecom manufacturing strengthening in India and capability of domestic firms to provide specific solutions at affordable costs, time is not far when they will become well-known brands in the world, a top official of Department of Telecom (DoT) said Friday.

Currently, Indian manufacturers account for only a small proportion of the telecom equipment market but that is changing, the Department of Telecom (DoT) Secretary J S Deepak said, adding that the ecosystem of telecom manufacturing is getting strengthened in the country.

Deepak said the main and unique selling proposition that they have is the ability to provide specific solutions to fight problems at affordable costs.

"I foresee a time not very far in the future where Indian telecom equipment brands will become well-known in the world, standing for affordable price, impeccable quality and will command enduring trust in global markets," Deepak said in New Delhi at the 'India Telecom 2016' event.

He added that the ecosystem is not only in manufacturing as the country has a huge design capacity and R&D centres of most multinational companies are in the country and there is a huge start-up ecosystem.

"Today, we have 4,500 startups, 4 tech startups coming up everyday," Deepak said.

He added that time is not far, when Indian IT will form part of advanced telecom products in the 5G space.

Deepak further said India is home to IT and IT-enabled services industry in the world and our companies in this area cater to 95 percent of the Fortune 500 companies.

"This marriage of a strong equipment manufacturing base together with talent and skills for software development can provide customised solutions for any customer, any company for any country. That I believe is the strength," he added.

Talking about mobile phone manufacturing in the country, the Secretary said in two years, we should be manufacturing 500 million, mostly lower end phones, which have a great market, not only in India but in a larger number of emerging countries, both in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

He said the telecom sector is one of the most fiercely competitive sectors in India and accounts for more than 6 percent of the country's GDP and supports more than 13 percent of the world's mobile telecom subscribers.