NSN Strengthens R&D; in India

NSN, one of the major infrastructure solution providers enabling telecommunication services, has strengthened its Bengaluru facility to push its growth furthermore. The Finnish player has been growing aggressively in the Indian market. According to VOICE&DATA estimates, the company clocked Rs 9,848 crore in FY 2008-09, registering an impressive 26.4% growth despite the recession. NSN also has been strengthening its market presence in the broadband equipment marketplace competing with other players like UTStarcom, Ericsson, Huawei, Cisco, etc, in India. It clocked a revenue of Rs 200 crore in FY 2008-09, registering 38.9% growth over the previous fiscal.

The Prime Minister of Finland, Matti Vanhanen, inaugurated Nokia Siemens Networks' new and expanded development center in Bengaluru. The expanded facility is equipped with state-of-the-art technologies like telepresence to enable strong interaction with the company's other global development sites to further intensify its R&D efforts. It hosts one of the company's three remote testing laboratories where engineers innovate, develop, test and deliver softwares to support the world's telecoms networks. Apart from this, the center also hosts experts in pre-sales, product management, program management, and technical support, as well as process and quality assurance activities.

Johann Haslinger, head, Nokia Siemens Networks Development Center, Bengaluru said, “For many years, our Bengaluru site fostered expertise in various product areas and became a vital element of our global R&D organization. By moving to a larger and more modern facility, the center will not only enhance our development efforts, but it also means that product innovation in one area can be easily transferred across our entire business.”

Kanika Atri, head, marketing and communications, India region, NSN said, “The baseline of innovation at our R&D center is to reduce total cost of ownership of our worldwide customers. To reduce capex/opex, we make the smallest possible base stations with the lowest footprint, and we innovate to make the existing base stations have the longest lifecycle. Our energy efficiency related innovation is clearly opex driven. Our expert R&D team-per equipment ability, to serve more subscribers-is increasing. This fundamental baseline is kept in mind for our products and services to be efficient and cost-effective.”

With India witnessing a remarkable journey in the telecom growth trajectory, and becoming the world's fastest growing wireless market, NSN's R&D center expansion tries to tap these opportunities. The Bengaluru facility would enable the Finnish player to get closer to its telecom customers in this region. It currently has a workforce of approximately 2,300 engineers with the space to expand to 3,000, depending on the demand.

kannan@cybermedia.co.in