Sector Snapshot · Telecom - Equipment & Accessories

India Becomes the World's Third-Largest Mobile Phone Exporter

A fast-read primer on India's telecom equipment and accessories sector — the backdrop against which we benchmark every company's cost structure in this category.

US$20.5 bn
Mobile phone exports, CY24 (world's 3rd-largest exporter)
Rs 1,950 cr
PLI scheme allocation for telecom & networking, FY27
Rs 2.4 lakh cr
Incremental production potential from PLI scheme
5.23 lakh
5G Base Transceiver Stations installed, Feb 2026
100%
FDI allowed via automatic route

Subscriber Base and Manufacturing Scale Both Keep Growing

The subscriber base continues to expand while the PLI scheme drives a growing manufacturing and export opportunity.

Total Telephone Subscribers (million)

Jan 2026 → Feb 2026

1,314.00mn
Jan 2026
1,321.31mn
Feb 2026

PLI Scheme Impact (Rs lakh crore)

Incremental production vs. export potential

Rs2.4L cr
Production Potential
Rs2.0L cr
Export Potential

What's Pushing the Sector Forward

Export strength, manufacturing scale-up, and strong policy support define this category.

Export Strength
  • 3rd-largest mobile phone exporter globally, $20.5bn in CY24
Manufacturing Scale-Up
  • PLI scheme for telecom & networking products driving domestic production
Policy Support
  • 100% FDI under the automatic route
  • DoT allocated Rs73,990cr for FY27

Recent Developments

A sample of the industry-wide and policy moves shaping the sector through early 2026.

Companies We Benchmark in This Sector

Listed Indian Telecom - Equipment & Accessories companies in tDoBe's cost-benchmarking coverage.

Sterlite Technologies
ITI
Tejas Networks
Optiemus Infracom
Valiant Communications
ADC India Communications
Birla Cable
Frog Innovations
Umiya Buildcon
Aksh Optifibre
Telogica
Punjab Communications
Clenon Enterprises
T N Telecommunications

The Cost Benchmark — What We Actually FoundtDoBe Think Report

The market facts above are public background. What follows is tDoBe's own work: every "Other Expenses" line from these companies' own financial records, read by hand and sorted into one clear set of categories — not a keyword search, not each company's own way of reporting it.

15.2%
tDoBe Average — Other Expenses as % of net revenue
27.9×
Gap between the highest and lowest company
16
Cost categories, sorted by meaning
3.1%
Biggest single category — Miscellaneous/Others
FY25/26
Latest available financial records

Where Companies Land — Total Other Expenses

Each mark is one company's total Other Expenses as % of net revenue. No company is named here.

15.2%
0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%

tDoBe Average by Cost Category

Ranked from biggest to smallest.

Miscellaneous/Others
3.1%
Legal & Professional Fees
1.0%
Freight/Distribution & Logistics
0.9%
Travel & Conveyance
0.7%
Repairs & Maintenance
0.6%
Total Other Expenses
15.2%
Where the Cost Really Sits

Miscellaneous/Others leads at 3.1% of revenue — reflecting the wide variety of non-standardized cost items across a genuinely mixed peer set spanning pure-play equipment manufacturers, cable manufacturers, and network-services/EPC-style businesses. Legal & Professional Fees (1.0%) and Freight/Distribution & Logistics (0.9%) follow.

Why the Range Is Wide

Equipment manufacturers, cable makers and EPC-style network-services businesses share this one sector code — genuinely different cost structures for genuinely different businesses — driving a 27.9x spread.

One Company Held Back

One company in this sector's source filings is a listed infrastructure investment trust holding telecom tower assets — its income is interest and dividend income only, with no revenue from operations at all, so the Other-Expenses-as-percent-of-revenue ratio doesn't apply. It's excluded from the peer set entirely, not just the average.

See Where Your Own Company Stands

This is the free, sector-wide view. It tells you where Telecom - Equipment & Accessories stands as a whole — not where your own company stands against it, category by category, in rupees.

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$999
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Compiled from public government and industry sources, February 2026 update · Figures rounded · tDoBe sector snapshot, for informational purposes · Cost Benchmark findings compiled from companies' own financial records, FY2025/26.