Motorola builds new $15 million R&D unit in Hyderabad

Sufia Tippu
Wednesday, 01 November 2006 13:05

IT Industry - Market

Motorola is investing $15 million in a new telecom software development center in Hyderabad in south India as of part of its efforts to expand operations and counter the dominance of its rival Nokia in the country.

The US telecom giant currently has six R&D centers in India.

Motorola’s chairman and CEO Ed Zander, during his first visit to Hyderabad, said, “Some of the products that you will buy later will be designed in Hyderabad.”

The R&D centre in Hyderabad’s Hi-Tech City area will house the Motorola software group and will employ more than 1,000 engineers.

“Software is a major driver of technology and our Hyderabad facility’s focus on software engineering addresses a key aspect of our global operations. We want to cultivate, retain and grow top talent in the world. We like what we see here,”Zander said, at the launch of the facility.

The announcement came nearly four months after Motorola decided to invest $100 million to build a handset and telecom equipment plant near another southern Indian city, Chennai.

Production of mobile phones from Motorola's manufacturing facility, coming up at Chennai will begin in the first quarter of next year. This was conveyed to the IT and Communications Minister, Dayanidhi Maran by a team of Motorola officials led by Zander.

"They also showed me a custom-made phone for the Indian market. Motorola is also evincing keen interest in Wimax technology,"  Maran said.

The Sriperumbudur facility is expected to manufacture one million phones per month.