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Mr Dayanidhi Maran, Union Minister of Communications & Information Technology, Mr Antti Piippo, Chairman, Founder and Principal Shareholder, Elcoteq Network Corporation, at the new Elcoteq facility in Bangalore on Monday. - - Murali Kumar. K

Bangalore , April 11

FINNISH mobile handsets and telecom equipment maker, Elcoteq Network Corporation, inaugurated its factory in Bangalore on Monday. The company plans to invest up to $100 million and hire 1,000 people for the unit by 2006, when it is expected to be fully operational to produce about 10 million handsets and networking equipment a year.

Elcoteq, which makes phones and networking devices for global telecom brands such as Ericcson, Motorola, Nokia, Siemens and Samsung, is the first electronic manufacturing services firm to set up a manufacturing unit in India.

"We are investing between $50 million and $100 million and will have about 1,000 people when the facility is fully operational next year," Elcotel President and CEO Mr Jouni Hartikainen told reporters.

Elcoteq plans to sell 80 per cent of the handsets produced here in the domestic market.

Mr Hartikainen said Elcoteq would eventually use India as a base to export phones and base stations to Pakistan, Bangladesh, West Asia and East Africa.

Elcoteq would work on design, fabrication and packaging of mobile units and other products in the telecom space while it was already "outsourcing design and software work to several software firms in India."

Earlier speaking at the inaugural of the facility, Elcoteq Chairman, Founder and Principal shareholder, Mr Antti Piippo, said the setting up of company's unit in Bangalore heralds India's transition from a service-oriented economy to a manufacturing-oriented economy. "It will increase local production of components through a supply chain cluster and bring cost benefits to consumers while generating employment," he added.

"India's young are yearning for new products, new technology, new lifestyles and the telecommunications and mobile revolution has symbolised that change and transformation," Mr Piippo said. Over 400 million new telephone users are expected to emerge in the next six years, he added.

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