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.
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Types
Telecommunications equipment can be broadly broken down into the following categories:
Vendors
The world's five largest telecommunications equipment (excluding mobile phone handsets) vendors, 2016 revenues are:
- Huawei Technologies
- Ericsson
- Cisco Systems
- Nokia Networks ( Alcatel-Lucent )
- ZTE Corporation
The world's five largest router and switch vendor leadership: Global Service Provider Survey, June 2015:
- Cisco Systems
- Huawei Technologies
- Nokia Networks ( Alcatel-Lucent )
- Juniper Networks
- ZTE Corporation
The world's largest mobile phone handset vendors: 3rd quarter of 2016 Major Smartphone Sales Leaders :
- Samsung (72.5 million)
- Apple (45.5 million)
- Huawei Technologies (33.6 million)
- OPPO (25.3 million)
- VIVO (21.2 million)
- Xiaomi (14.9 million)
- LG Electronics (13.5 million)
- ZTE Corporation (11.7 million)
- Lenovo (10.9 million)
- TCL (8.9 million)
- Meizu (5.5 million)
- Micromax Mobile (< 5.0 million)
- Sony (< 5.0 million)
Used telecommunications equipment
As telecommunications equipment technology rapidly evolves, operators are being forced to look at used and refurbished equipment for alternative, cheaper options to maintain their networks. The used telecommunications market has expanded rapidly in the last decade with used and refurbished equipment offering cheaper equipment supply, offering legacy and end of life equipment being refurbished to support platforms already being used by global telecom operators. As equipment is discontinued, operators and end users often look for sparing as parts become harder to source.