a notification mandating equipment makers to get their products tested & certified from the agency or body authorized by the DoT before selling or importing them in India. This order comes into effect from October 1, 2018. For this, the government plans to set up labs & testing centres which will go a long way in addressing the problems faced by operators while simultaneously opening up new opportunities for T&M players in the country.
Rentals on rise
One of the key challenges faced by industry is price sensitivity of consumers buying T&M equipment. Customers in the market are very price conscious & tend to purchase low-priced T&M equipment at the expense of quality & added features. Renting equipment on rent can be a viable solution to this problem. The inherent characteristic of the T&M market is such that the evolving telecom standards render T&M equipment obsolete quickly. Next generation technologies are emerging rapidly & new industry standards are being adopted. This means that key test requirements are continuing to evolve. With everything in a constant state of flux, there is a risk that purchased equipment will quickly become outdated & effectively made redundant. Therefore, rental is an attractive alternative to direct purchase, as the customer is not tied down to any item of equipment for long time & can opt for new equipment depending upon their changing test requirements. Experts believe that T&M on rent is good option for shorter projects, while buying new T&M will be cost-effective for longer use. In the last few years, the rental market has gained traction as it allows the customer flexibility to switch to the latest equipment without incurring significant investment. As a result rental companies that have good quality equipment, flexible rental options & an expansive portfolio of products are in position to capitalize on the opportunities that lie ahead in the coming year.
Miniaturization: The game changer
Thanks to the growing demand for portable devices & connected environment due the Internet of Things (IoT) consumers are looking to adopt on-site testing. This is also leading to miniaturizing of T&M equipment. Miniaturized T&M equipment are flexible & easy to use. The fast growth of the 58 || July 2018 || ELECTRICAL MIR R OR
market in the electronics industry is leading to the development of small-sized electronic devices for which miniaturized T&M equipment are required. For instance, the T&M equipment used in consumer electronics & other minute components need to be very small in size. Hence, the vendors are moving toward the trend of miniaturization.
Digital convergence
The rapid evolution towards higher frequencies & wider modulation bandwidth, coupled with the advent of technologies such as 5G, is creating growth opportunities for advanced T&M equipment. According to Ghosh, 5G has the potential to revolutionize many industries such as telecommunications, automotive, energy, health care & more. The technology is expected to be several times faster than 4G & would provide a backdrop for the billions of devices to be connected to the internet as it would boost M2M communication & the internet of things (IoT) market. The demand for communication T&M solutions is on a rise on account of growing bandwidth demand & introduction of next generation cellular & wireless technologies. In addition, increased R&D spending in telecommunication sector coupled with growth in mobile phone market has fueled market momentum. Advancements in digital convergence have made it possible to monitor & control T&M instruments remotely. Devices under test are moving away from single purpose, hardware centric entities with limited capability to multipurpose, software-centric entities with endless capability. T&M equipment industry is following the same track. Today, T&M market is increasingly adopting a software-defined approach towards instrumentation, which allows expeditious upgradation of solutions as per changing network & technology requirements. Over the next three to five years, the level of productivity & collaboration delivered by software centric ecosystems will have a profound effect on test system design. India Test and Measurement industry is witnessing a good growth. The key growth driver is the largest end-user in telecommunications industry, as this sector has grown both terrestrially and via satellites. The sophistication here is high and it covers a wide range of techniques and measurement
topologies. Telecommunication networks are exceedingly dependent on the functionality of electronic test and measurement instruments, as the minutest distortion of signals can result in failure to communicate. Establishment of new networks need to upgrade existing communication infrastructure are the major demand drivers for electronic test and measurement instruments market. The next large market is education and training. Engineering education is growing and so is the market. Fast obsolescence is another reason for market growth. T&M products are also needed in applications such as defense and industrial automation. The Indian GP test equipment market is characterized by a mix of indigenous participants and multinationals. Agilent Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., Rhode&Schwarz, Anritsu, Tektronix, Inc., and Fluke are some of the major multinationals in the market. Indian manufacturers such as KusamMeco, Aplab Limited, Scientech Technologies Pvt. Ltd., and Scientific Mes-Technik Pvt. Ltd. also compete in the GP market. Indian suppliers focus on low frequency products and target educational institutes, whereas large multinational foreign suppliers focus on high-frequency products targeted at research institutes and the defence segment. With continuous change in the communication and electronics market, buttressed by the wireless revolution, OEMs are under constant pressure to offer turnkey test solutions for the constantly evolving technologies. In order to cater to the evolving demands of the end-user companies, test and measurement majors focus on R&D to constantly develop newer and advanced test equipment. With all of the above trends and development and approach setting in, the test and measurement market in India is all set to boom. There are areas of interest for every player in the market, and the global as well as domestic demand for test, measurement, and instrumentation is set to grow significantly in coming years.
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