SIZZLERS: Call Them Stars...

3D Networks

A his subsidiary of the
Singapore-based Planet One Pte Ltd, after a slow start in FY 2001—02 has made
fast and considerable progress in 2002—03. Being the sole Pan-Asian Platinum
partner of Nortel Networks, it made significant dent not only in the call center
space, but also in the enterprise segment. During the year, its business stood
at Rs 66 crore. It bagged significant orders from Hinduja TMT, Cognizant, Nipuna,
Essar, Igate Mascot, Eastern Command, Sutherland, Khodays, and Timken, among
others.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. So far it had the skill sets to
handle the enterprise side, but in the last six months or so it has built the
necessary telecom project skills and is gearing to win projects in this area
too. Today, it offers the complete lifecycle services in voice, data, and
converged network solutions, apart from managed services and consultancy. For
this, it has alliances with Juniper, Divine, Verint, and CommWorks and direct
office in seven key cities to support its customers.

MBT

With the main focus gradually shifting
from British Telecom, the year 2002—03 saw a large chunk of MBT revenues
coming from international clients like MCI Worldcom, Rockwell, Alltel and
Ericsson, while on the domestic front it did good business with Microsoft India,
BSNL and MTNL. During the year, MBT also decided on concentrating its telecom
software offerings only in areas of CRM, BSS, security and network planning with
inventory management.

Apart from its existing clients, MBT is betting big on the
Asia-Pacific region where it plans to add 6—10 customers in the coming year
and grow by almost 100 percent in the next 18 months. It is also looking at an
inorganic growth route by means of a couple of alliances it plans in India, Sri
Lanka, and Thailand this year.

Tulip IT Services

This is not from Ripley’s Believe It
or Not, but it surely is the biggest surprise of the year in the Indian network
integration business. Tulip IT Services rose to the No. 3 slot in the overall
2002—03 ranking of network integrators, from No. 8 in the previous year.

In the process, it left behind HECL, HCL Infosystems, Network Solutions and
Global.

At Rs 209.87 crore, the company achieved a whopping 177 percent growth, the
highest in the business.

But Tulip is not done yet. Majority of the Rs 75 crore order from Punjab
National Bank (PNB), one of the largest enterprise equipment deals during last
year, is this side of the fiscal. And the company has almost finalized an
equally big order from another Bank. Yet again, a 100 percent growth this year?

UTStarcom

Almost made it to the ‘best
kept secret deal list’ of the last fiscal. UT Star kept on denying throughout
the year that it had bagged a Rs 470 crore order for broadband infrastructure
equipment from telecom biggie Reliance Infocomm.

With its global DSL equipment position (at its current No. 2
spot, it is gaining marketshare rapidly), UTStarcom is also well positioned with
its multiservice platform. Tata Teleservices, MTNL and BSNL already figure on
its growing client list. Also now that it has acquired 3Com’s carrier
subsidiary, Commworks, the company has an already recognized total control
access platform as well as the installed base for remote access and softswitch
in India. Though the incumbency of GSM and CDMA technologies make it tough for
UTStarcom’s PAS system in India, the company is exploring the rural
opportunity for it. This company is surely going to be in the news in 2003—04.

ZTE

with orders of Rs 376 crore in hand,
ZTE is the company to watch out for in FY 2003—04. Active in transmission and
CDMA, the company has bagged large orders from BSNL in both the areas. For CDMA,
the company has got a Rs 235 crore order whereas for transmission it has an
order worth Rs 141 crore. The company has already finalized on its partner. ITI
has been signed as a long-time partner for joint production and technology for
CDMA infrastructure equipment whereas for transmission the company has tied up
with Icomm Tele. On the broadband front, the company has bagged an ADSL pilot
project from MTNL for both Delhi.