Telecom majors expand further in India
Telecom companies are flocking to India to expand their existing operations or opening up new offices around India.
Nokia Announces another R&D Facility in Bangalore,India
Nokia, the world leader in mobile communications today announced that it has expanded its Research and Development (R&D) facility in Bangalore with the inauguration of a 210,000 square foot development centre at the Prestige Tech Park in the IT corridor. The Bangalore R&D centre, the largest Nokia site of its type in India, focuses on development work for software platforms, chipsets and high-end Nokia mobile devices.
Source: MoneyControl
While Nokia says the new center will be developing software platforms and high-end Nokia mobile devices, I believe, the new center will be exclusively used to develop and support Bharti(Airtel), which gave a $400 Million contract to Nokia to manage and expand its network.
Bharti Airtel today announced the signing of a $400-million contract with Nokia for managing and expanding its cellular networks in eight telecom circles.
Nokia will also deploy a pan-India (Wireless Application Protocol) solution across Bharti's networks. The Nokia win comes two months after Bharti awarded a $1-billion contract to Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson to expand networks in the other 15 circles where Airtel operates.
As per the three-year contract, Nokia will provide managed services and expand Airtel networks to cover all towns and cities in the eight telecom circles of Mumbai, Maharashtra & Goa, Gujarat, Bihar (including Jharkhand), Orissa, Kolkata, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh (including Chhattisgarh).
Source: Money Control
In other words, Nokia is building its own offshore services center in India to serve the local clients.
Motorola builds new $15 million R&D unit in Hyderabad. Going by the same principle and beliefs of Ed Zander, Motorola wants to design its mobile phones right from fashion houses. Not from technically profound Engineering centers. Remember Ed Zander's first move to bring back Motorola was to move its design centers to Chicago design studios. Given the context, if Hyderabad center works on the design of phones, it would be a big big surprise to every one.
Motorola is investing $15 million in a new telecom software development center in Hyderabad in south India as of part of its efforts to expand operations and counter the dominance of its rival Nokia in the country.
The US telecom giant currently has six R&D centers in India.
Motorola’s chairman and CEO Ed Zander, during his first visit to Hyderabad, said, “Some of the products that you will buy later will be designed in Hyderabad.â€The R&D centre in Hyderabad’s Hi-Tech City area will house the Motorola software group and will employ more than 1,000 engineers.
“Software is a major driver of technology and our Hyderabad facility’s focus on software engineering addresses a key aspect of our global operations. We want to cultivate, retain and grow top talent in the world. We like what we see here,â€Zander said, at the launch of the facility.
The announcement came nearly four months after Motorola decided to invest $100 million to build a handset and telecom equipment plant near another southern Indian city, Chennai.
Source: ITWire
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