Monday, April 11 2005 17:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Finnish mobile handsets and electronic equipment maker Elcoteq today (Apr 11, 2005) opened its factory in Bangalore, in which it would invest upto $ 100 million and hire 1,000 people by 2006.

Elcoteq, which produces phones and devices for global telecom brands as Nokia, Siemens and Samsung is the first multinational telecom firm to set up a manufacturing unit in India, which is one of world's fastest growing market.

"We are investing between $ 50 million to $ 100 million when fully operational. We will have about 1,000 people when the unit is fully operational next year," Elcoteq President and CEO Jouni Hartikainen told reporters.

The factory has a capacity to produce 10 million handsets every year, he said, adding, Elcoteq plans to sell 80 per cent of the handsets produced here in the domestic market.

Hartikainen said eventually Elcoteq would use India as a base to export phones and base stations for Pakistan, Bangladesh, West Asia and East Africa.

He said the firm would work on design, fabrication and packaging of mobile units and other products in the telecom space, while it already was "outsourcing design and software work to several software firms in India".

Elcoteq officials declined to name the companies or the plans of its customers.

Nokia, LG and Alcatel have already announced intention to start factories in India to cater to the growing demand by consumers of low cost high quality mobile devices.