Motorola dials TN to make sub-$30 cell phones and base stations

08 June 2006

The plant will be located in the 300-acre Sriperumbudur Hi-tech Special Economic Zone, near Chennai, being developed by Motorola and the Tamil Nadu government.

The company signed an MOU with the state government of Tamil Nadu on June 7, 2006, to this effect.

The Motorola plant will come up in 70-acre land and the balance will be for other component vendors. The first phase of the project would come up on 2.50-lakh square feet at an investment of $30 million by January 2007.

According to Stu Reed, executive vice president, integrated supply chain, the plant will make all the models of cell phone models made by the company. "The plant capacity will be 1 million phones per month." Declining to mention the price at which the land is bought from the state government he said, "At this juncture it is not possible to tell the land usage schedule."

Targetting the Indian masses, Motorola will focus on producing sub-$30 handsets at its Indian plant. "Our strategy is to connect the unconnected and hence we will make the phones for the masses." According to him, Motorola has sub-$30 handsets in its portfolio.

The union minister for telecom and IT Dayanidhi Maran, said, "Motorola's plans of making cheaper handsets goes well with the government of India's plans for rural connectivity." According to him the country sees an addition of five million new subscribers every month.