The Hindu Business Line : Alcatel, C-DoT join hands for R&D facility

Mr Ravi Sharma (extreme left), President Alcatel South Asia, exchanging documents with Mr Vijay Madan, Executive Director, C-DOT (extreme right), in the presence of Mr Dayanidhi Maran, Minister for Communication & IT, and Mr Etienne Fouques, President, Mobile Communication Group of Alcatel, in the Capital on Tuesday. - Kamal Narang

New Delhi , March 29

FRENCH telecom major Alcatel has signed an agreement with Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) to set up a global research and development centre for broadband wireless products.

The joint venture facility, to be established in Chennai, will employ 1,000 people and initially work on WiMax based technology.

Alcatel has also decided to manufacture telecom equipment for GSM-based cellular network with the Indian Telephone Industries (ITI).

Initially, equipment for about 5 million GSM lines will be manufactured at ITI factories. Of this, 2 million lines will be exported to the Russian and African markets. The remaining 3 million lines will be used by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd for its cellular expansion in western India. ITI's unit in Rae Barielly will be used for manufacturing the equipment.

Announcing the venture, the Union Minister for Communication and IT, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, said: "This is only the beginning of a relationship with Alcatel. BSNL will procure more lines if the equipment is locally manufactured. It took a lot of convincing from our side to get Alcatel manufacture in India."

Mr Maran said the agreement to set up R&D facility would also push forward the Government's plan of bringing the advantage of broadband services to urban subscribers and rural masses. "The joint project will also provide an appropriate platform for tele-education, tele-health, e-information and e-governance apart from enabling us to meet the targets of 250 million phones," said Mr Maran.

The tie-up with Alcatel comes after Mr Maran met top company officials at the recently concluded 3GSM World Congress at Cannes in France.

The R&D facility will cater to not only the Indian market but also to Alcatel's global network.

"The first R&D project to be implemented jointly will be related to WiMax technology. We will expand the portfolio to other wireless broadband technology," said Mr Etienne Fouques, President, Mobile Communications Group, Alcatel.

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