New Delhi: The global telecommunications sector seems to be back after the recession to record a 4 percent growth in revenue to US$1.9 trillion last year, says a new report from Ovum.

According to the report, the positive growth is largely driven by strong  growth performance  in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China).The research firm further noted that the improvement in numbers indicated that recovery in the telecoms industry was on track.

"It's too early to break out the champagne just yet, but within the context of a slowly improving global economy, the telecoms sector is returning to sustainable growth," says Matt Walker, principal analyst at Ovum in the report.

In terms of the opportunity for vendors, although service provider capex declined by three per cent in 2010, this was an improvement from the nine per cent capex decline in 2009. Significantly, in the fourth quarter of 2010, carrier capex rose two per cent when compared to the fourth quarter of 2009.

This modest year-on-year (YoY) service provider capex increase was the first such growth since the fourth quarter of 2008 – the year the financial crisis hit – and is another sign that recovery in the telecoms sector is on track. The Asia-Pacific region excluding China & India had the second best regional capex growth in 2010, versus 2009, up 4.4%; India’s 39% drop was the poorest result. Ovum is optimistic on India’s pick up in 2011–12. China, on the other hand, fell by 19%, dropping capital intensity down to 26.6%, the lowest since 2006.

It further says that the Asia-Pacific telecommunications industry, excluding India and China, registered the second best regional capex growth last year with a 4.4 percent increase over 2009.

"The late pick-up of global capex in 2010 drove the full-year results. There is usually a fourth quarter budget flush, but 2010 was stronger than 2009, when most carriers remained jittery. Vendors who have faced several quarters of lean times are certainly happy to see the capex tap turned on again," adds Walker

According to the Ovum report, ZTE clocked a year-on-year revenue growth of 40 percent, while Juniper saw its revenue grow by 26 percent. Alcatel-Lucent expanded its revenue by 13 percent year-on-year, Ericsson at 11 percent and Nokia Siemens at 0.5 percent.