Revenues of the Indian telecom equipment industry plunged 2.52 per cent to touch Rs 1,17,039 crore in 2010-11 from Rs 1,20,069 crore in the previous fiscal, according to an annual survey by a telecom industry journal.

The survey covered over 500 telecom companies in India spanning carrier equipment, enterprise communication equipment, and user device manufacturers.

Close to half the telecom equipment revenue came from carrier equipment manufacturers, which saw a dip of 12.12 per cent to touch Rs 58,294 crore during the year, according to the survey 'V&D 100' by "Voice&Data" journal. In 2009-10, the segment registered revenue of Rs 66,332 crore, it said.

The enterprise equipment vertical grew at 0.87 per cent to report revenues of Rs 24,023 crore for the same period from Rs 23,815 crore in 2009-10. The user device segment that includes mobile handsets, fixed phones, datacards and tablets, contributed more than one-third to the total telecom equipment industry at Rs 34,722 crore, a growth of 16.04 per cent.

Mobile handset maker Nokia had the highest revenue during the year followed by telecom network equipment majors Cisco, Nokia Siemens Networks, Ericsson, and software firm Wipro. The other players in the top 10 were Samsung, Huawei, Tech Mahindra, TCS and ZTE. .

The study attributes the sharp fall in the carrier equipment segment to security policy formulated by the government at the beginning of the year, which prohibited many telecom operators from releasing network expansion orders.

Within the carrier equipment business, most segments have shown negative growth. Wireless infrastructure segment dropped 23.78 per cent to report revenues of Rs 18,629 crore from Rs 24,440 crore a year back.

The broadband infrastructure segment revenue fell to Rs 944 crore from Rs 2,190 crore in 2009-10. The telecom software grew nearly five per cent to record revenue of Rs 23,533 crore with Tech Mahindra, TCS, Wipro and Infosys taking the top 4 slots with a combines market share of 72.5 per cent.

Network integration business registered revenue of Rs 7,479 crore from Rs 9,200 crore in 2009-10 showing a negative growth of 18.71 per cent. The network storage business grew by ten per cent to record revenue of Rs 1587 crore.

The survey also points out that to power over 3,50,000 telecom towers annually, the telecom industry consumes nearly three billion litres of diesel generating nearly 5.6 million tones of carbon emissions.

Most operators are shying away from investing in creating pollution free networks as it involves significant investments, it said.