Bpl To Set Up Rs 60-Cr Design Centre Near Bangalore

Rajiv Chandrashekhar, managing director, BPL Mobile said that the new facility would be a stand-alone venture and would make its technology and products available to other companies.

He added that the venture is a manifestation of the core philosophy of the group that it should not depend on just buying and assembling technology but be self sufficient and translate indigenous technology into product forms.

The capital required for the development centre is slated to be sourced from the $200 million ADR issue planned by the group company BPL Cellular.

The ADR issue, according to Chandrashekhar is yet another manifestation of the group's efforts to be self sufficient in raising capital from international markets.

 

Initially, the Telecom centre would focus on two broad areas, network development like billing systems and service dealings like subscriber management systems. BPL already has a technical tie-up with US-based LCC Company for sourcing networks while LHS has been helping it with subscriber management.

For the purpose, it has already transferred nearly 90 people from its group's various research units to the new facility and would soon upgrade the centre with 150 professional researchers.

The idea to set up such a centre is to look at multimedia network options in the future, including satellite communication.

The Technology Development Centre would, therefore, not only develop BPL's competence level in the wireless area but also act as a springboard for experimenting and introducing other technologies.