All: Interesting article on Nokia in India. It would be nice if the Q could pump out enough phones to be able to taylor to individual markets like Nokia. Also(end of article) why is the Q not bidding on Indian contracts?
INDIA - INDUSTRY/ CELLULAR PHONE: Finnish Telecom Nokia -
All Out to Woe Indian Customer
South Asian Business Analyst
NEW DELHI, September 21 (SABA)---The
Indian cellular market with one million subscribers
already on, cellphone vendors are planning new
and innovative strategies to connect with
consumers. Take for instance, the cellular major, Nokia. The Finland-based
digital mobile phone manufacturer Nokia Telecommunication has a plan to
expand its software development activities in the country..
As a tribute to India's 51st independence anniversary, Nokia has unveiled the
5110 cellular handset with the tricolor (of Indian flag) emblazoned on it. And
that is not the cellphone's only selling proposition. With Pandit Ravi Shankar's
assistance, Nokia has added another unique tribute to India; one of the
cellphone's 30 ringing tones is 'Saare Jahaan Se Achhaa', composed by the
great maestro himself. "It is the national tune recognized by every Indian. We
are trying to build an emotional bond with the consumer." Says Mr.Parikshit
Bhasin, joint managing director, Nokia Private Limited. In a plateauing cellular
industry with one million subscribers already on, this strategy may be able to
connect with consumers.
Since its entry four years ago, Nokia has established its presence in eight
major cities of the country. The first GSM call in India was made in a
Nokia-supplied network in 1995.Nokia has built GSM networks for Indian
operators such as SkyCell Communications, Modi Telstra, Fascel, Tata
Communications, BPL US West Cellular and Evergrowth Telecom.
After getting GSM equipment contracts from the metro cellular operators, the
company repeated the performance in the mobile phones market and soon
built a leadership position for itself. Though aggressive marketing and bundling
schemes have eaten into its market share, Nokia is still the number one
company as far as the GSM market is concerned. The various cellphone
models of the company -- Nokia 9000 Communicator, Premium-8110 and
Nokia-3 810 -- would continue to come from the Singapore plant till a
production plant was set up in the country, he said. Nokia has signed three
more research and development projects with the Indian Institute of Science
(IISc), Bangalore, with which it already had two projects on GSM technology.
Nokia funded all projects under a three-year agreement in areas of mutual
interests enabling exchange of scientists between the two and to offer
advanced training in telecom to IISc students.
Nokia has a good line of transmission products such as microwave. It remains
to be seen how it positions itself in the fixed wireless handset market.
The company's dream to repeat its success in the basic services market,
however, has not been realized so far. The main reason behind this is that for
the two major requirements of a basic telephone network - the switching and
access equipment - the company's offering are still not very popular in India.
Nokia has put its cellular phone-manufacturing project in India on hold but is
going ahead with plans to open its first-ever software development center in
the country, a top company official said. "Prevailing market conditions have
forced the company to temporarily shelve the cellular phone project," said Mr.
Hannu Karavirta, India Operations Chief of the US$9.8-billion Finnish
company, but reiterated the company's resolve to go ahead once conditions
improved. "The software development center would meet Nokia's global
requirements, mainly for the GSM cellular test platform and the built-in GSM
cell phones," Mr. Karavirta said, adding that the project site would be
Bangalore, Hyderabad or Gurgaon.
Nokia's decision to set up the center in India was influenced by advantages
like easy availability of qualified software professionals and its volume
requirements, he said. The company, which started its operations in India in
1994, has been outsourcing software from two
Indian companies for a year-and-a- half, and the final decision to open the
center would depend on the performance of these business partners.
Nokia does not have a software development center anywhere in the world,
and the proposed center would be its first foray into the software industry. Mr.
Karavirta said the company would invest more in India to upgrade the GSM
cellular test bed it had set up in Delhi a few years ago. This was necessitated
because of the planned introduction of the next generation of cellular phones in
the country.
Nokia's wireless access solution is based on DCS 1800, which has not really
taken off in India. The company now promotes the concept of hybrid
networks and is behind the WCDMA third generation standard.
The company has established a customer service center and product
competence center in New Delhi to enhance its ability to offer turnkey
solutions.
[ Motorola ] , Nokia, Siemens and Ericsson are among the global cellular
majors who have shown interest for setting up Mahanagar Telephone Nigam
Limited's (MTNL) proposed mobile telephone network in Delhi and Mumbai.
MTNL is planning for a huge capacity -- both in terms of subscriber numbers
and traffic density -- for its cellular network. The sheer size of the proposed
network dwarfs the existing networks of the cellular operators. The MTNL
network is to have 100,000 subscribers each in the two cities in the first year
of operations, which will rise to a million each by the fifth year of operations.
MTNL has received among the lowest-priced quotes in response to its tender.
Seven cellular equipment vendors-Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, Alcatel,
Siemens, Tata-Lucent Technologies and Nortel-- quoted among the lowest
prices in the world for the system MTNL wants to buy. Will Nokia bag the
order is a million dollar question.
(Copyright 1998)
_____via IntellX_____
Publication Date: September 20, 1998
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