Aquarius will invest 3 billion rubles. in the development and production of telecommunications equipment
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Following Rostelecom, the electronics manufacturer Aquarius will invest 3 billion rubles. in the development and production of telecommunications equipment. The company wants to produce carrier-class switches that can be recognized as domestic. Now commercial consumers mainly buy foreign equipment through parallel imports, experts say, but prices are rising, and logistics are becoming more complicated. Local producers are counting on demand and due to the “tightening of protectionist policies.” According to Kommersant’s sources, they are already discussing the idea of a ban on parallel imports of foreign equipment, which has analogues in the Russian Federation.
Kommersant discovered on the job search portal HH.ru that PC Aquarius (part of Smart Holding) has posted several vacancies related to the development and testing of telecommunications equipment. Specifically, the company is looking for a “Head of Testing” and “Head of Hardware Development”. From the description it follows that applicants will work in the department of telecommunications solutions – “a new division of the company, the purpose of which is to create and bring to production a line of telecommunications equipment Aquarius.”
The company explained to Kommersant that they see demand in the segment, so they plan to expand the business. We are talking about “the development of hardware and software, the formation of a separate team, the independent development of the model range in the register of telecommunications equipment of Russian origin.” Aquarius clarified that they would invest 3 billion rubles in the direction at the first stage, hiring “about 100 new employees.”
A switch is one of the basic elements of communication networks, which is designed to connect nodes within one or more segments. The main Russian manufacturers are Eltex, Bulat, Qtech and others, said Alexander Sivolobov, deputy head of the NTI Competence Center based on Skoltech for wireless communications and the Internet of Things, to Kommersant.
According to the expert, Russian manufacturers are mainly focused on the “regulated market”: “Such equipment in a small amount could be purchased by the public sector, state corporations for their closed networks. Large commercial telecom operators purchased mainly foreign equipment Cisco, Huawei, Juniper, which is imported through parallel imports. But prices have risen by an average of 50-70% by 2021, and the logistics of supply are becoming more difficult.” In June, Rostelecom announced the launch of the production of telecommunications equipment at the facilities of the Avangard plant in St. Petersburg – in addition to switches, it was about IP video cameras, routers and other products.
Kommersant’s interlocutor in one of the operators notes that Eltex, Bulat and Qtech will also increase their presence in the corporate sector, but Aquarius can supply “a more complete stack of equipment, including servers and storage systems.” At the same time, he emphasizes, “so far telecom operators are generally reluctant to switch to domestic equipment, including in network elements, since it is possible to purchase foreign equipment through parallel imports.”
At the end of 2022, the volume of the Russian telecommunications equipment market increased by 1.7%, to 2 trillion rubles, Cnews reported with reference to NeoAnalytics. The publication writes that the Russian market remains import-dependent. But the head of Zelax (a domestic equipment manufacturer), Sergei Sukhman, disagrees with the estimates, emphasizing that “no one has exact figures for the market, but it has fallen both in money and in units.”
Mr. Sukhman explains Aquarius’ interest in the development and production of equipment by the fact that due to the upcoming tightening of regulatory requirements, which determines the status of domestic production, the demand for equipment designed and manufactured in Russia will grow. Kommersant’s interlocutor on the market adds that “ideas are being discussed” to limit parallel imports of telecom equipment to Russia, analogues of which are assembled in the country: “So far, these plans have not progressed beyond talk, but may appear in the official field by the end of the year.”
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