Nokia Siemens Networks has commenced manufacturing 3G infrastructure in India, becoming the first vendor to do so.
The company said it was producing the products at its Chennai factory, and has already manufactured a batch of LTE-ready 3G base stations.
The plant will initially mainly produce radio frequency and system modules, but by mid-year NSN plans to add transport modules and microwave radios to the list.
“While the products manufactured here are intended for both local and global markets, the demands of the Indian market will be given priority in the manufacturing decisions,” NSN head of operations Herbert Merz said.
“With 3G manufacturing capabilities in the country, we will be able to facilitate a faster time to market of 3G services for our customers since all key elements, including production, distribution, logistics and remote delivery, will be taken care of locally.”
Six Indian operators – Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Reliance, Tata Tele and Vodafone Essar – are currently battling it out in an auction for three pan-India 3G licenses, with bidding having surpassed 45.8 billion rupees as of yesterday.
Three more companies – Videocon, S Tel and Etisalat – are bidding for spectrum only in certain circles, and state-owned telcos BSNL and MTNL will effectively each get half of a pan-Indian license.
In anticipation of heavy 3G spending, NSN has also set up 3G test labs and R&D centers in the country, and trained 3,200 local field engineers to support the rollouts.