One of the oldest telecom equipment providers Nokia has successfully completed the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent last month. Overall, the combined company now offers a complete end-to-end portfolio of products and services, with 1.04 lakh employees globally, out of which 20,000-plus sit out of its Indian operations.

The company is also looking to leverage Alcatel-Lucent’s portfolio in India that has 280 million subscribers through 2.30 lakh sites being served by its equipment. In 2015, it had won 69 contracts from various service providers up from 45 in 2014.

In an interview with BusinessLine , Sandeep Girotra, Vice-President and Head of India Market, Nokia, shares more details on the Indian business and how the company can play its role in projects like 4G/ long-term evolution (LTE) and voice over LTS (VoLTE) deployments. Excerpts:

How will the new entity (combined Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent) operate?

The first day of the combined entity was January 14, when the companies actually came together after the first acquisition of shares from the market was completed. Though operationally we are together, legally the entities are still separate and employees are part of their own legal entities.

How long would it take for the legal process to be completed and the company to become operational as one legal entity?

I think the last report was 91 per cent and we need to actually get to 95 per cent for the company — Alcatel-Lucent — to completely dissolve.

The combined operations have already started in January, and we have a framework for operating before we reach the 100 per cent level. It’s going ahead on full stream. The sales teams are preparing joint bids, and preparations for the Mobile World Congress (in Barcelona) are proceeding at full speed. There are already some early launches for the event around 5G, security and analytics. In Barcelona, we will be presenting only one face to the world – ‘One Nokia’.

How are you participating in the Centre’s programmes like ‘Make in India’?

We have an entity in Chennai which is the state-of-the-art manufacturing of networks where we make 3G, 4G equipment and also export a large volume. Then, we have the global delivery centre in Noida and in Chennai. We also have R&D centre in Bengaluru.

Alcatel-Lucent had R&D centre in Bengaluru and also one in Chennai. So, we will have a pretty large set up in India with around 20,000 people.

We have one global delivery centre in Noida and another one in Chennai, which is basically also built for an independent function as well as a business continuity function.

With lot of telecom operators like RJio, Bharti Airtel, vouching for 4G/ LTE what are the R&D initiatives your company taking?

Now, we have got a very impressive and different portfolio — practically an end-to-end portfolio — and within this portfolio different verticals. As a combined company our R&D spent in 2014 was about €4.2 billion, which nearly puts us amongst the top two spenders for R&D in the industry.

As part of the acquisition, came in the Bell Labs. During the course of last year, we started to look at that what it that we stand for as a company is.

In India, it’s always been a case of how can you pack more capacity in the available spectrum. We did that in 2G, we continue to do that in 2G with several functionalities, like being so called in what people do in 6.2 megahertz (MHz). Now we intend to that in 4.4 or 4.5 MHz and, therefore, freeing up that 1.2MHz. If it is 1800, it comes back into the pool or the operator can reuse it.

If you go back ‘connecting people’ has been our legacy and still continues to be part of our DNA. We have expanded this vision to say expanding the human possibilities of technology, which essentially means that ‘how do we make technology which is quietly working in the background’.

The competition is already rising in each of your verticals. How prepared are you to beat competition?

It’s a very competitive industry, no doubt. But, as Nokia, we are confident that we have the products, the machinery, the processes and the performance engine to continue to deliver profitable set of numbers.

We delivered an operating profit of 14.6 per cent, which compared to the next best (competitor), is big.

We know how to compete in this market in a manner which brings value to the customers, shareholders, and demonstrating this for the last 10-12 quarters on a consistent basis. So, are we worried? No! Do we feel confident to compete and win? Absolutely!

What is your take on call drops?

Nokia has been quite a leader in this topic.

Call drops is a topic which is a combination of many things — spectrum, sites, how easily or how quickly the sites are available or the available sites are shut down.

It is a function of how much is the traffic that is building up and how much is the underlying spectrum coming through.

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