The Hindu : Business : Telcordia to make Chennai its hub

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 13, 2006

Business

Business

Telcordia to make Chennai its hub

N. Ravi Kumar

Will continue partnership with system integrators

UPBEAT ON INDIA: Daniel J. Caroll Jr. (left), President and CEO, Telcordia Technologies, and Dayanidhi Maran, Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology, at the inauguration of Telcordia India lab in Chennai on Monday. — Photo: Bijoy Ghosh

CHENNAI: Telecommunications network software and services provider Telcordia Technologies Inc. is buoyant about the growth prospects in the Indian market and plans to make its research and development centre in Chennai a hub for catering to the South Asian market.

The Chennai centre, inaugurated on Monday by Union Communications and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran, is the first of its kind for the company outside of the US and has been established by its Indian arm set up at Tidel Park, it would ultimately employ 500 people.

Addressing the function and later journalists of The Hindu group, Telcordia Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Officer Daniel J. Carroll, Jr. said that over the next 18 months the company would be hiring 150 professionals.

Senior executives of the firm, including its Executive Vice-President (Software Systems) Mala Sarat Chandra, said India promised tremendous growth potential for the company. Notwithstanding the Chennai facility, it would continue the partnership with several Indian IT firms, including Wipro and Accenture, under which it outsourced software development. "We expect our partnership with system integrators and software providers to continue ... to create new applications," Ms. Chandra said. Apart from catering to the Indian market, the Chennai centre would provide services and solutions for the entire world, especially the south Asian market, they said.

Mr. Carroll said the employees of the company had generated more than 80 patents. It was "already enjoying some success in India," he said, adding that Telcordia provided operational support service to the Tatas and Reliance. "We will support the entire region from India [Chennai centre]," he said.

The Executive Vice-President (global sales and marketing) of the firm, Scott K. Erikson, said the Indian telecom market was one of the competitive markets and the service providers were expected to incur substantial expenditure on expanding the network capacity.

The Vice-President (Telcordia Global Services), Naveen Suri, said the company could contribute significantly to the service providers when India introduced number portability for mobile phone subscribers.

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