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Ms Sari Bauldauf, President, Nokia Networks

New Delhi , Aug. 28

HAVING zeroed in on India as one of the fastest growing telecom markets in the world, Nokia is focussing on reducing its mobile handset prices to capture a bigger market share, according to Ms Sari Bauldauf, President, Nokia Networks.

As part of the strategy to reduce the cost of mobile handsets, the company launched two handsets — Nokia 1100 and Nokia 2300 — which will be available at the retail level in the fourth quarter of the year. These models would help the company make up for the declining growth in Europe and the US, she said. She added that telecom growth was taking place in countries such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and China, where Nokia can bring value by its economy of scale benefits.

Ms Bauldauf, however, refused to divulge the prices of these models, which had also been simultaneously launched in Moscow. The 2300 phone will be targeting the youth, while the 1100 will be targeted at adults who require only the most basic functions of the phone.

Ms Bauldouf noted that the mobile telecom market in India would grow to 100 million within three to four years. At present, the market size is over 20 million with GSM cellular providers having around 17 million subscribers and rival WLL operators having about 3.5 million customers.

"We believe that there will be 100 million people in India using mobile phone within the next three to four years. India provides exciting opportunities and challenges for operators and vendors alike." In the coming years, new growth markets will be the key drivers for the mobile industry. "Such large markets present exciting opportunities and challenge for operators and vendors alike," she said.

As regards the future investment plans for India, she noted that the company was investing a lot in trade and distribution. "Some of it, we do it ourselves and some of it through partners. We also have a lot of software development here in India and I see that growing in the future," she said, but declined to divulge specific investment figures.

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