Ericsson to invest $100 mn annually in India

Swedish telecom equipment giant Ericsson on Thursday announced an investment of $100 million (nearly Rs 450 crore) every year in India with an option to enhance it depending upon the growth in the telecom sector.

"We will be investing $100 million annually for the next five years. The figure could go up depending upon the growth in the sector," Mats Granryd, managing director, Ericsson India, said.

Asked about Ericsson's projections of growth in the Indian telecom sector, he said last year GSM cellular mobile telephony grew by 100 per cent.

"This is growing phenomenally and I do not see an end to it," he added. Ericsson's global CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg, who is in New Delhi to attend CII-CEOs

forum, said, "Indian telecom market has grown more than double in last five years and we have a lot of activity here."

Asked about BSNL's mega 45 million line GSM tender, in which Ericsson emerged the lowest bidder, getting into legal wrangle after US telecom giant Motorola challenged the process in the Delhi High Court, Carl-Henric said, "Faster the solution the better it is. Delay is not positive for BSNL."

He also said the company was working with various operators on the next generation (3G) mobile services, saying the trial runs were on but did not name the operators citing the company's policy not to declare the names.