A 40 million Euro research and development centre on wimax technology, a joint venture between C-DOT and Alcatel, was inaugurated in Chennai on Friday.
The centre, which was set up in seven days, is the first of its kind for Wimax technology, Alcatel president Serge Tchuruk and Union Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran said after the inauguration of the centre.
The first technology developed by the facility would be out in a year's time from now, Tchuruk said.
The research would mainly focus on fast developing Wimax 801 16 E technology, he said, adding that the main thrust would be on consumer premises equipments like modems and mobile phones, he said.
Maran said the centre would only develop technology and would sell its intellectual property rights to manufacturers for a royalty. The research facility was expected to earn profits from the fifth year of its operations, Tchuruk said.
He said the Alcatel, which already had a tie up with Indian Telephone Industries Ltd for manufacturing landline telephone exchange equipments, would now help ITI in manufacturing switching equipments for GSI phones.