Broadband
Digital TV to outpace broadband, internet in Europe by 2010: Study
MUMBAI: The market for ‘digital home’ services (TV, broadband internet and telephony) in Europe is set to take off in 2006, according to a study by Booz Allen Hamilton tiled, The Future Role of Cable in Shaping the Digital Home in Europe.
By 2010, digital TV (DTV) will be available in 60 per cent of European households enabling consumers to access new services, including interactive television. Thus, DTV will replace broadband internet as the principal driver of growth of Europe’s digital economy.
As a consequence, cumulative investments in the industry of around 100 billion euros are anticipated, along with the creation of 100,000 new jobs, mostly with infrastructure providers (telecom, cable). Local content providers will also profit from this investment: Approximately 35 billion euros will be invested in new programme development alone. However, these economic benefits will only fully materialize, if genuine competition between infrastructures is ensured.
With the development of DTV, the competition for the convergence market (including internet, telephony and TV) will continue to intensify. The long-term winners will be the players, who are first able to offer the consumer the so-called “triple play”, access to all three services from a single source, on favourable terms and conditions. Both cable network operators and telecommunications providers have the technical capabilities to deliver these services. Cable TV providers have long offered internet services and have recently entered the (digital) telephony market. Now an increasing number of telecommunications providers are forcing their way into the TV market. With that, the competition is set to steeply increase, although the balance of power remains uneven.
Size is becoming a key factor for competition – High investments will play a key role in the impending competition for the Digital Home, for developing or expanding the network, for creating new digital content, as well as for sales and marketing. Market players with good access to funding and a large subscriber base to leverage decisive competitive advantages. For them, the investment can be significantly lower on a “per customer” basis. Size and financial strength are therefore becoming ever more important success factors.
Comparing both industries reveals that national telecommunication incumbents are in a privileged starting position. They dominate the infrastructure industry in their respective countries by a factor of 1:7 or more in terms of revenue. In addition, European telecommunications incumbents have a customer base of around 151 million. Cable network operators lag well behind with around 51 million subscribers. Nevertheless, in many markets cable operators will be the only credible contenders to challenge the telecommunication incumbents. To compete effectively in the convergence market, it will be necessary for cable network operators to quickly achieve critical mass.
Booz Allen Hamilton VP Thomas Künstner says, “The pressure to consolidate in the European cable TV industry is further increasing. Moreover, we can also expect to see mergers which cut across the traditional boundaries of the industry, as the example of Virgin Mobile and the leading British cable TV provider ntl/Telewest shows.”
The future market development is fundamentally driven by three factors, the regulative environment, the structure of the competitive landscape, and consumer behaviour
The regulatory bodies in particular will prove to be key catalysts, or barriers, to the market development. If a balanced competition cannot unfold and the market develops unfavourably, the cumulative investments may fall by over 40% to around 59 billion, and the creation of around 90,000 of the potential 100,000 new jobs could be significantly delayed or even lost.
Regulators should focus on four key areas for action
1) In the past, policy makers and regulators focussed strongly on broadband internet, in order to capture the positive effects of digitalisation. In future, the regulators should adopt a more balanced attitude fostering both broadband and digital TV development.
2) A balanced market structure and genuine competition are of great importance. This requires taking the convergence of TV, broadband and telephony markets systematically into account for regulatory decisions.
3) Striking the right balance between short-term consumer interests such as low prices, and long-term effects such as investment, growth and employment is becoming increasingly challenging, but also instrumental for regulators, who want to enhance the Digital Home market development. Again, this requires taking a comprehensive forward looking position, taking into account all three services (TV, broadband, telephony), the different distribution infrastructures (cable, DSL, satellite, terrestrial), and the value-added chains (the relationship between content and distribution) for regulatory decisions.
4) The analysis of broadband and triple play penetration in Europe shows: Countries with effective infrastructure competition in place tend to show higher broadband and triple play penetration at lower cost to the consumer. Infrastructure-based competition leads to higher investments, accelerated technical innovation and the creation of more jobs. Therefore, the focus of regulators should shift more strongly towards infrastructure competition.
Broadband
Tejas Networks names Arnob Roy as MD and CEO, overhauls top leadership team
The Bengaluru-based telecom gear maker reshuffles its entire top team even as quarterly revenue collapses by 83 per cent
BENGALURU: Tejas Networks is changing the guard at the top, and doing so at speed. The Bengaluru-headquartered telecom equipment maker has elevated Arnob Roy as managing director and chief executive officer, effective April 15, 2026, for a term running through to August 3, 2028, and in the same breath announced new appointments across operations and finance. The timing is pointed: the company is navigating one of the roughest patches in its recent history.
Roy steps up from his role as executive director and chief operating officer, a position he has held since March 2019. He brings more than three decades of experience in the high-technology sector across research and development, operations, and sales. His predecessor, Anand Athreya, resigned last year citing personal reasons and was relieved on June 20, 2025, leaving a gap at the top that has now been formally filled.
The numbers Roy inherits are sobering. Tejas posted a net loss of Rs 211.3 crore in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026, a near-194 per cent widening year on year from Rs 71.8 crore in the same period a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter collapsed 82.6 per cent year on year to Rs 333 crore, down from Rs 1,907 crore. EBITDA swung to a loss of Rs 118.2 crore against a profit of Rs 121.5 crore a year ago. The culprit is not hard to identify: Tejas has derived the bulk of its revenue from BSNL’s fourth-generation network project, delivered as part of a Tata Consultancy Services-driven consortium, and that roll-out is now winding down.
Roy, speaking during a post-earnings conference call with analysts, was candid about where the company has been. “The BSNL 4G network went live across 100,000 sites. We deployed our largest indigenous router networks in the country through the BSNL MAN network, as well as in the BharatNet Phase 3 network,” he said, adding that Tejas had also successfully rolled out its 400G and 800G DWDM equipment in domestic and international markets, and continued the deployment of what it describes as the world’s largest satellite IoT network through its vehicle tracking system solution.
The pivot to new revenue streams is already under way. Tejas has partnered with Japan’s Rakuten Symphony and NEC Corporation to push deeper into international markets, with several Open Radio Access Network trials ongoing, one of which concluded recently. The company is also diversifying across equipment categories and geographies to sustain momentum as the BSNL chapter closes.
To prosecute that strategy, Roy needs a full team around him. Preetham Uthaiah has been appointed chief operating officer, moving up from his current role as vice president of product management for wireless products at Tejas Networks. Uthaiah brings nearly 30 years of global experience spanning engineering, product management, and business development across India and the United States. Before joining Tejas Networks, he served as executive vice president of product management, marketing, and strategy at Saankhya Labs, and held senior roles at Tech Mahindra on both sides of the Atlantic. He holds an MBA from Arizona State University and a degree in electronics and communications from Karnatak University.
On the finance front, AVS Prasad has been approved as chief financial officer, effective May 16, 2026, succeeding Sumit Dhingra, who has resigned. Prasad, currently serving as finance controller at Tejas Networks, brings over 27 years of experience within the Tata Group across telecom, aerostructures, and defence. A company secretary and cost and management accountant by training, he has spent more than 15 years in senior finance roles including CFO and financial controller positions, with expertise spanning corporate finance, treasury management, regulatory compliance, internal audit, and governance.
New chief executive, new chief operating officer, new chief financial officer — all installed in a single move, at a moment when the company’s largest revenue source is drying up and the next chapter remains unwritten. Tejas Networks has placed its bets. Now it has to deliver.
