Eyeing a share in the growing value-added services market in India's telecom sector, US-based communications company Telenity will set up an R&D centre in New Delhi with an initial investment of Rs 30 crore (Rs 300 million).
"We will set up an Research and Development centre either in Delhi or in Pune by the end of next year to offer application-based services to consumers. We will invest Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million) in the first phase and increase it to Rs 30 crore in the next 3-5 years," Telenity CEO Dilip Singh said.
The facility in India would be the company's second R&D centre globally, first being in Europe. In the coming few years, the Indian R&D centre would become a hub for our global operations, Singh said.
Telenity is already helping state-owned telecom company BNL to offer personalised, value-added and location-based services to its mobile network subscribers.
In a bid to cash in on the fast growing value-added services market in India, he said, the company would open two to three offices more in India, at Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune.
Telenity currently has an office at Delhi in the country. As voice ARPU (average revenue per share) is declining worldwide, maintaining and increasing subscriber base and deploying the right value-added services quickly and efficiently becomes critical for operators to sustain their profitability and growth, Singh said.
Value-added services contributed to 10 per cent of total the services revenue of operators in India, he said, adding that revenues from the sector were growing at an annual rate of 30 per cent and was likely to grow at a faster pace in the coming few years.
"We are scaling up our presence in India with an aim to meet the demands of rapidly growing Indian wireless market," Telenity Asia-Pacific general manager Ashwani Vachher said. Within just more than a year of operation in India, Telenity was expanding its network to support wide base of mobile network customers here, he said.
Singh said, "Currently, the company does not require any outside funding. But with our international expansion plans, we may at some time consider it."
He said, "Based on the expected growth, we will also increase the headcount of our employees in India to 50 by end of 2006 from the present 25."
The company would invest about 30 per cent of the revenues in R&D, he said, refusing to divulge any further details.
Telenity worldwide customer base includes network operators, service providers and application providers with over 100 million subscribers.