The Hindu Business Line : `Telecom gear makers set to invest $900 m'

THE Communications and IT Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, today said that India could expect investments worth $800-900 million from multinational companies for setting up telecom equipment manufacturing units during the fiscal 2005-06.

Equipment vendors including Nokia, Ericsson, Alcatel and Motorola have made commitments to invest in the manufacturing sector in India during the recent GSM World Congress in Cannes, France, he said.

"During my meeting with executives of these companies we were able to project India as an ideal investment destination with 2 million new mobile subscribers being added every month. We will give a preferred partner status to those companies which set up manufacturing base in the country," Mr Maran said at a press briefing.

Nokia would announce, in the first week of May, the venue for its facility, which could either be in Chennai or Manesar (Haryana) or in Himachal Pradesh. Mr Maran had met Mr Jorma Ollila, Chairman and CEO, Nokia, during his visit to Cannes.

Swedish major Ericsson has already started manufacturing base transceiver stations in Rajasthan.

Mr Maran had also met Mr Carl-Henvric Svanberg, Worldwide CEO, Ericsson, and Mr Serge Tchuruk, Chairman, Alcatel. During the meeting, Mr Tchuruk informed that Alcatel is considering the proposal to set up a global research centre on WiMax in India.

The Minister said that the Government would promote chip-manufacturing units. "Singapore based Flextronics will shortly be announcing their plans."

On the controversial spectrum policy, Maran said ``our policy will be technology-neutral. We cannot follow a policy like that in the US, which is pro-CDMA or like in Europe, which is pro-GSM. ''

On adopting the third generation (3G) technology, the Minister said ``3G has not been accepted everywhere. So we will be very cautious while selecting the technology.''

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