48. United Telecoms

United Telecoms Ltd (UTL), as a result of its diverse product range starting
from subscriber terminals to central office switches, in-between carrying
transmission equipment, has been doing well in the country. In the past two
years, it has posted an annual income in excess of Rs 150 crore. Its total
income for the period ending 31 March 2001, was Rs 157.31 crore. Operational in
three main areas of interest in the telecom sector–switching equipment, radio
communication for rural applications, and terminal equipment, where the company
saw the bulk of its revenue coming from the switching segment. The switching
equipment sales consisting of RAX, SBM, and MAX-L exchanges fetched it Rs 106.20
crore of revenue with 4.2 lakh lines supply, the transmission equipment (digital
microwave radio) sales were at Rs 9 crore, and the terminal equipment consisting
of the telephone handsets accounted for Rs 16.76 crore.

The reason for UTL’s success is a wide range of switching and transmission
equipment. The range of switching equipment covers the full span from small
switches for remote areas (128/256 lines) to the large switches (40K lines) for
metropolitan cities. In the transmission category, it has point-to-point digital
microwave radio products supporting several types of channels.