Nokia to invest $70-mn in new facility at Oragadam

Chennai: Nokia Siemens Networks inaugurated a new facility for the manufacture and distribution of mobile communications infrastructure at Oragadam near Chennai.

Over the next three years the company plans to invest $70 million (Rs 300 crore) in the facility.

The facility will manufacture mobile Base Station Controllers, Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi EDGE BTS, Microwave Radio and Access line-card products, as well as other telecom equipment.

Mr Simon Beresfold-Wylie, CEO, Nokia Siemens, said the capacity of the plant would be ramped up to 4,000 units a month, in about six to nine months. These products are currently being imported. Mr Wylie also added that the optimal capacity of the facility can be determined only after 6 to 9 months.

Addressing a press conference here on the occasion of the inauguration of the plant, he said the technology of mobile base stations had improved over the years. Equipment that were as big as a large refrigerator and consumed 1,500 watts of power four years ago, are today of the size of a desktop computer and consume around 500 watt.

Nokia Siemens is working towards reducing energy consumption further, to about 350 watts. Also, today’s technology allows the base stations to function in a higher ambient temperature (40 degree C), obviating the need for air conditioning.

The plant was later inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr M. Karunanidhi. Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister noted that Motorola and Nokia were already present in the state, producing mobile handsets. “With the establishment of the Nokia-Siemens plant here, the telecom equipments manufacturing industry is getting integrated in Tamil Nadu,” he said.

In his address at the function, Mr Wylie noted that Nokia Siemens Networks is already present in India (through its imported products). The company powers services for more that 175 million subscribers in India, he said.

“Around the world, Nokia Siemens Networks expects a 100-fold growth in network traffic globally, and the majority of this growth is expected to come from emerging markets,” Mr Wylie said.

Besides the plant inaugurated, the company’s operations in India include a global services hub, sales and marketing offices in Delhi NCR, a manufacturing facility in Kolkata for producing fixed network equipment, a development centre in Bangalore and a Global Networks Solution Centre in Chennai. The company also intends increasing the number of R&D centres in India.

With a workforce of more than 8,000, Nokia Siemens Networks has a presence in more than 200 locations in India, and measured in terms of revenue, is one of the country’s top 30 enterprises.

Also speaking at the function, the Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Mr A. Raja, noted that $73 billion of investments would be needed in the 11th Plan period (2007-12) to achieve the target of 600 million phone connections. “A majority of this is expected to come from FDI,” he said. At present, there are 350 million subscribers both mobile and fixed line in the country. Each month, 8 million subscribers are being added to this, Mr Raja said.