Huawei Commits to India Operations

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. has denied speculation that it has scaled back its manufacturing plans in India and has re-affirms its commitment to the country.

Earlier this week the Wall Street Journal suggested that the Chinese vendor had revised its manufacturing plant plans in India due to slowing demand. (See IndiaWatch: Has Huawei Dropped Plant Plan?)

"It's all baseless," Suresh Vaidyanathan, Head-Brand, at Huawei India, tells Light Reading India. "We deny the story run by certain media about Huawei dropping the idea of India manufacturing facility in India, because it is factually inaccurate," he adds.

"Our goal is to provide custom-built solutions, specific to the India market... we have already established our own manufacturing facility in Chennai and have also done contract manufacturing with Flextronics Corp. India. The fact is that both have been in operation for production of telecom network equipment since 2011," states Vaidyanathan.

Huawei says the Chennai plant is used for the manufacturing of various networking products, including optical and microwave equipment, while Flextronics assists with the production of some optical components.

The Chinese vendor stresses that it's committed to the India market for the long term and will continue to support the development of local industry in India. "Huawei views India as a strategic global hub for R&D (Research and Development) and network operation services. We have invested US$400 million in the past 10 years and are committed towards further investments in India in the future," Vaidyanathan adds. (See Huawei's Window On the World.)

The company claims it is seeing strong demand from customers that are rolling out 3G and BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) networks. (See RIL's LTE Rumor Mill and LTE Rollout in India Soon?.)

It also says its new Bangalore R&D (Research and Development) facility, first announced in November 2011, will be operational by June 2013. The company plans to invest around $150 million in the new Bangalore centre, which will focus on the development of technology specific to the Indian market. Huawei already has 2,000 R&D staff in its existing facility in Bangalore and is looking at hiring further staff as it expands. (See Huawei's Enterprise Vision For India.)

Jatinder Singh, Principal Correspondent, Light Reading India