A telecom network, in four layers
Your message travels through the two layers at the bottom. The two layers above them run the network as a business.
Layers 1 and 2 are the network that carries your message: the towers and the core network, and the fibre behind them. Layer 3 is the operator's business software. Layer 4 is the operators, who own the network and sell plans to you. Tap a title in the diagram to jump to its companies.
Mobile network equipment 12 companies
This layer covers three things. The mobile towers send and receive the radio signal to and from your phone. Links called backhaul carry each tower's traffic onwards. The core network is software in the operator's data centres; it checks your SIM and passes your traffic to the internet.
Complete networks from one maker
These companies sell the tower equipment and its software together, as one package. Ericsson and Nokia built most of India's 5G network, together with Samsung.
Open RAN software
Open RAN is a newer way to build towers. The tower hardware comes from one company, and the software comes from another company and runs on ordinary servers. This lets an operator mix suppliers instead of buying everything from one.
MavenirMavenir is the best-known Open RAN company. It also builds private 5G networks, which a company runs only inside its own factory or port.BengaluruHiring now
Parallel WirelessParallel Wireless sells the software that runs on the equipment at a tower.BengaluruHired recently
Rakuten SymphonyIncludes Altiostar, acquired 2021Rakuten Symphony sells the software platform that Rakuten built to run its own mobile network in Japan. It now includes Altiostar, a maker of Open RAN software.BengaluruHired recently
IP InfusionIP Infusion makes a network operating system. This software lets ordinary server hardware do the work of telecom equipment.See alsoEnterprise networkingSingle parts: antennas, chips, links, voice
Each of these companies makes one part of the network: radio units and antennas, the chips inside them, links between towers, indoor coverage or voice calls.
Ribbon CommunicationsRibbon Communications makes the equipment that handles voice calls in an operator's network. It also makes some fibre equipment.Bengaluru
Ceragon NetworksCeragon Networks makes microwave links. A microwave link carries data through the air from one tower to the next, where laying fibre is not practical.
Fibre and broadband equipment 10 companies
Behind every tower, the traffic travels on fibre optic cable. Home broadband also travels on fibre. The companies here divide the work by distance: between cities, in your area, and inside your home.
Between cities
The fibre routes that link one city to another, and one data centre to another. Each route carries a very large amount of data.
From the exchange to your street
Equipment at the local exchange, the building that serves your neighbourhood. One fibre leaves the exchange and is split on the street to reach 32 or 64 homes.
Inside your home
The last box in the chain, on the wall of your home. In most Indian homes, this box is also the Wi-Fi router.
The fibre cable itself
Every fibre route needs the cable itself: thin strands of glass inside a protective cable.
Corning Inc.Corning makes the glass fibre itself, and the cable it goes into.PuneSee alsoAdvanced materials and specialty chemicalsBroadband without fibre
Where laying fibre is not practical, a home can get broadband through a wireless signal, through the cable TV wire, or through public Wi-Fi.
Tarana WirelessTarana Wireless makes fixed wireless equipment. With it, a home gets broadband through a wireless signal from a nearby pole, instead of a cable.PuneHiring now
Wifi DabbaWifi Dabba sells low-cost public Wi-Fi in Indian cities. It works more like a small internet provider than an equipment maker.
HarmonicHarmonic makes the equipment that lets cable TV operators sell internet over the same cable that brings TV channels.BengaluruHiring nowSee alsoVideo streaming technology
Cambium NetworksCambium Networks makes fixed wireless equipment, which brings broadband to a building through a wireless signal instead of a cable.See alsoEnterprise networkingSoftware for running an operator 16 companies
An operator has hundreds of millions of customers, so it needs software to run its business. The software activates SIMs, deducts data from prepaid balances, sends bills, handles roaming abroad and plans where to build next. Each of these jobs is a separate software market. Together these systems are called BSS and OSS (business support systems and operations support systems).
SIMs, recharges and bills
Software that activates a new SIM, deducts data from your prepaid balance as you use it, and prepares the monthly bill for postpaid customers.
AmdocsAmdocs makes the billing and customer software used by many of the world's largest operators. Much of its engineering is done in India.
CSGCSG makes billing and customer software. Most of its customers are cable and telecom companies in the US.
Alepo TechnologiesAlepo Technologies makes billing and customer software for broadband and Wi-Fi providers.
Telgoo5Telgoo5 makes billing software for brands that sell mobile plans on another operator's network.
Roaming: who pays whom
When you use your Indian SIM abroad, a foreign operator carries your calls and data. Afterwards, the two operators have to pay each other for this.
SyniverseSyniverse connects operators around the world. It passes roaming traffic and messages between them, and works out what each operator owes the others.Delhi NCR · Bengaluru · HyderabadHiring now
SIMs inside machines
Software for SIMs that sit inside machines rather than phones.
Sorting network traffic
Software that recognises each kind of traffic on the network, and decides how to handle it.
Planning new towers and fibre
Software for planning the network before anything is built.
Emergency calls, alerts and lawful tapping
Systems that operators are required to run for the police, the courts and the emergency services.
Pert Telecom SolutionsPert Telecom Solutions, based in Mumbai, makes systems for lawful interception (call tapping that a court or the government has authorised), for finding a phone's location and for sending public alerts.
Polaris WirelessPolaris Wireless finds the location of a phone when someone calls the emergency services.See alsoGovernment softwareCloud storage and caller ID
Apps and services that you use on your phone alongside your mobile plan. Some come from your operator, and some you install yourself.
Synchronoss TechnologiesSynchronoss Technologies makes the cloud storage and messaging services that operators offer under their own brand name.
TruecallerTruecaller is an app on your phone that shows who is calling and blocks spam calls.See alsoEndpoint security and device managementThe operators 4 companies
An operator buys a spectrum licence from the government at an auction. It owns or rents the towers and the fibre, and it sells mobile and broadband plans to you. All the companies in layers 1 to 3 sell to the operators.
CirclesCircles started in Singapore as a mobile brand that existed only as an app. It now sells the software it built to other operators.Bengaluru · Delhi NCRHired recently
Tata Communications (Tata Group)Part of Tata groupTata Communications sells private networks to banks and large companies. It also sells international connections and space on undersea cables, including to other operators.Pune · Mumbai
What's changing
Telecom equipment is becoming software.
Until recently, the equipment on a tower and in the core network was special hardware that ran only its maker's software. Now operators are moving this work onto ordinary servers and cloud platforms, where software from any company can run. This change is what makes Open RAN possible, and Jio used it to build much of its own network. A newer use is private 5G: a 5G network that a company runs only inside its own factory or port.
Companies: ingrid's company map. Hiring signals: postings feed of 5 Nov 2026.