Telecommunications equipment

Telecommunications equipment (also telecoms equipment or communications equipment) is hardware used for the purposes of telecommunications.

Since the 1990s the boundary between telecoms equipment and IT hardware has become blurred as a result of the growth of the internet and its increasing role in the transfer of telecoms data.

Types

Telecommunications equipment can be broadly broken down into the following categories:

• Public switching equipment
  • Analogue switches
  • Digital switches

• Transmission equipment
  • Transmission lines
    • Optical fiber
  • Base transceiver stations
  • Multiplexers
  • Local loops
  • Communications satellites

• Customer premises equipment
  • Private switches
  • Local area networks
  • Modems
  • Mobile phones
  • Landline telephones
  • Answering machines
  • Teleprinters
  • Fax machines
  • Pagers
  • Routers

Vendors

The world's five largest telecommunications equipment (ex. mobile phone handsets) vendors measured by applicable 2011 revenues are:

1. Ericsson
2. Huawei
3. Alcatel-Lucent
4. / Nokia Siemens Networks
5. ZTE

The world's five largest router and switch vendors measured by applicable revenues in the first quarter of 2012 are:

1. Cisco Systems
2. Alcatel-Lucent
3. Huawei
4. Juniper Networks
5. ZTE

The world's 10 largest mobile phone handset vendors measured by unit sales in the fourth quarter of 2012 are (global market share shown in parentheses):

1. Samsung (22.7%)
2. Nokia (18.0%)
3. Apple (9.2%)
4. ZTE (3.4%)
5. LG Electronics (3.2%)
6. Huawei (2.9%)
7. TCL (2.4%)
8. Lenovo (1.8%)
9. Sony Mobile Communications (1.7%)
10. Motorola Mobility (1.7%)

As of 2012 many of the largest telecoms networking equipment vendors are struggling financially due to over supply, rising market share of China-based vendors, and declining revenues for 2G and 3G networks not being fully offset by the growing market for 4G equipment.

See also

• Networking hardware