The Hindu Business Line : Nokia plans to make base station controllers at Chennai

"Nokia is confident of India's skilled labour force's ability to handle the manufacturing of high-end network infrastructure elements, such as Base Station Controllers. Chennai was a natural choice for us as we are already establishing a production facility there," said a release quoting Mr Simon Beresford-Wylie, Executive Vice-President and General Manager (Networks).

In April, the Finnish telecom firm announced its plans to set up a mobile device production facility in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, at a cost of Rs 650 crore.

The production of Base Station Controller, equipment that handles allocation of radio channels and receives measurements from mobile phones, will begin simultaneously with the terminal production during the first half of 2006.

With this, Nokia becomes the only telecom vendor in India to manufacture both network infrastructure and terminals in the country, the release said.

India is among the top five telecom markets in the world and is set to reach the third position in the next few years.

In order to sustain this growth, rapid expansion of mobile networks will be essential. Nokia's investment in local Base Station Controller manufacturing aims to meet this requirement, said Mr Beresford-Wylie. He added, "Base Station Controller manufacturing is high-end and complex and will allow us to tap into the talented engineering pool in India, in addition to creating additional employment."

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Anil Ambani holds talks with Infocomm honchos

`Independent directors should form 1/3 of board'
Irani panel submits report on company law

69 bids received under NELP-V for 20 oil blocks

Loopholes in Tobacco Control Act plugged — Celluloid screens go `smoke-free'

Nokia plans to make base station controllers at Chennai

Pocket