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In a bid to push telecom R&D and manufacturing in India, Center for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) and French telecom major Alcatel have signed an agreement to set up a global R&D center for new broadband access technologies in Chennai.

The new facility would employ 1,000 people. Though the officials declined to comment on the modalities and nature of the venture, they said that the first project to be implemented jointly would be related to WiMAX technology based on emerging IEEE 802.16e standard and its evolutions. "This joint effort might mature into a joint venture company," Alcatel MD and president-South Asia Ravi Sharma said.

Announcing the venture, Union Minister for Communication and IT 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."

The MoU is pursuant to the discussion held by Maran during 3GSM world congress at Cannes with various international telecommunication organizations. The minister had called upon the telecom companies to take advantage of Indian skills and favorable investment environment for establishing telecommunication R&D and manufacturing facilities here. 
The present agreement is also aimed to push forward Government of India plan of bringing the advantages of broadband services to urban subscribers as well as to 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 Maran.

Earlier this month, the minister had informed Parliament about the technical tie-up between Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) and Alcatel. Initially, equipment for about five million GSM lines will be manufactured at ITI factories. Of this, two million lines will be exported to the Russian, Middle East and African markets. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd would use the remaining three million lines for its cellular expansion in western India. ITI's units at Rae Barielly and Manakpura would be used for manufacturing the equipments.

- CyberMedia News