Telecommunications equipment

Telecommunications equipment (also telecoms equipment or communications equipment) is a type of hardware which is 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.

Types
Telecommunications equipment can be broadly broken down into the following categories:


 * Public switching equipment
 * Analogue switches
 * Digital switches
 * Voice over IP switches
 * Virtual reality (VR)
 * Transmission equipment
 * Transmission lines
 * Optical fiber
 * Local loops
 * Base transceiver stations
 * Free-space optical communication
 * Laser communication in space
 * Multiplexers
 * Communications satellites
 * Customer premises equipment (CPE)
 * Customer office terminal
 * Private switches
 * Local area networks (LANs)
 * Modems
 * Mobile phones
 * Landline telephones
 * Answering machines
 * Teleprinters
 * Fax machines
 * Pagers
 * Routers
 * Wireless devices

Semiconductors
Most of the essential elements of modern telecommunication are built from MOSFETs (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors), including mobile devices, transceivers, base station modules, routers, RF power amplifiers, microprocessors, memory chips, and telecommunication circuits. As of 2005, telecommunications equipment account for 16.5% of the annual microprocessor market.

Vendors
The world's largest telecommunications equipment vendors by revenues in 2017 are: