Thursday, August 25 2005 18:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Global mobile equipment maker Motorola today (Aug 25, 2005) said that it will consider manufacturing in India to comply with the eligibility criteria of deals with state-run carriers like Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) but remained non-committal on any immediate plan in this regard. "We are not closed to it.. we will consider manufacturing here. We will do everything to comply with the tender conditions of the Public Sector Units (PSU) telecom carriers ... but that will be when and in what shape, size and form, I can't say at this point of time. Our focus is to gain siginficant market share here and attain a critical mass", said Edward Zander, chairman and chief executive officer of Motorola.

India, with mobile user base of 5.9 crore, is one of the fastest growing wireless markets in the world and is currently adding about 25 lakh subscribers every month. According to a proposed Government policy, vendors would need to have local manufacturing facilities to be able to bid for tenders of PSUs like BSNL and MTNL. BSNL alone is close to finalising a Rs 13,000 crore tender for its 40 million GSM mobile project.

A number of multinational vendors of mobile telephony equipment, including Nokia and Ericsson, have announced plans to start manufacturing in India. Zander said to gain a major market share, Motorola would look at "connecting the unconnected" by launching handsets costing below Rs 2,000.

The company has already launched one such handset while another would be out by October. These handsets would be targeted towards low-end users and rural areas.