Ericsson plans to hire over 1,500 in India by year

Telecom equipment maker Ericsson said on Wednesday it plans to hire more than 1,500 people at its global delivery centre in India by the end of this year.

Currently located in Gurgaon, the centre has close to 3,500 people and is Ericsson's largest delivery centre globally.

"India is a very important market for us and is growing. Demand continues to be good and if all goes as per plan, we would add more than 1,500 people by the end of December this year," company's senior vice-president and head of Global Services Magnus Mandersson said.

Ericsson's Global Services portfolio includes consulting and system integration, network roll-out, customer support, learning and managed services.

"The demand environment in India remains robust and we are very focused on the Indian market. The talent pool in India is also good, which helps us service our customers globally through the Indian centre," Mandersson added.

Ericsson has three global delivery centres (apart from India) in Romania, China and Mexico and has more than 45,000 people in this unit.

Asked about the opportunities in the Indian market, he said, "The deployment of 3G

is still on. While 2G has been deployed already, there are upgrades that have to keep happening, operators are looking at smarter solutions.

"Overall, we are happy with our position in India".

Ericsson is the leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. It provides 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 2 billion subscribers and has the leading position in managed services.

The company's portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry.

The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices.