Telecom equipment market in India IS US$23 billion

The  Carrier equipment contributed 55 percent to the overall market, while the share of handsets and enterprise equipment stood at 30 percent and 14 percent respectively

  
Source: Voice and data Jun 2008

Huawei Technologies and ZTE, Chinese manufacturers are challenging the domination of European equipment-makers by grabbing contracts (some of which are in advanced stages of negotiations) worth over $2 billion in 2008 -- nearly one thirds of the Indian market of around $6 billion.
Last year, according to industry estimates, Ericsson, Alcatel and Nokia-Siemens (formed after the merger of the equipment businesses of the two companies)  controlled over 80 per cent of the telecom equipment market in India with Nortel and Motorola and the Chinese players accounting for the rest of the market.
Huawei, aims to become number two by 2009, having  established  as a reputed supplier. Huawei sold equipment worth $700 million last year and expects to more than double the turnover from India to $1.5 billion this year.The company has bagged a $500-million order for GSM mobile equipment from Reliance Communications (RCom), the country's largest CDMA player that is shortly rolling out GSM services. The company is also in talks with Aircel (owned by Telekom Malaysia), Vodafone, the Aditya Birla group's Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices for contracts. 
ZTE's target this year is to sell equipment worth over $750 million.ZTE aims to become  number three or number four this year.Sources say ZTE is close to signing a deal with Shyam-Sistema, the Russian joint venture with Rajasthan's Shyam Telelink, for several circles for which it has received licences to operate. The company is also in talks with Datacom, promoted by the Videocon group, RCom and Spice Telecom. ZTE will also bid for BSNL's southern Indian contract for GSM services, having won the state-owned service provider's contract for equipment for under 3 million lines. It is also scouting for a manufacturing plant in Chennai to service the Indian market.
The impending launch of third generation or 3G services is another reason Indian telecom companies are drawn to the Chinese. Huawei, for instance, is one of the world's largest players in 3G equipment. Bharti Airtel has already given Huawei a $300 million contract to roll out its 3G network in Sri Lanka. .