Nokia Siemens Networks to spend $15 million in Chennai facility expansion

Global data networking and telecommunications equipment manufacturer, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) today said that it is expanding its Oragadam facility near Chennai in India to meet local and global demand.

NSN, the world's second-largest maker of telecommunications equipment is expanding the Oragadam facility from 35,000 to 55,000 square meters, and increasing the number of product lines to 33.

The expansion will significantly increase existing manufacturing capacity, allowing NSN to export about 37 per cent of the facility's production across the Asia Pacific. It will also enable the company to manufacture and distribute new multiradio and LTE products, among other equipment such as GSM and LTE-ready 3G base stations and its FlexiPacket radio.

NSN said that the manufacturing facility will offer energy-efficient equipment to reduce the carbon footprint of new network deployments. It has already started the production of innovative flexi multiradio antenna system, which forms part of its liquid radio architecture.

Addressing a press conference yesterday in Chennai, Ashish Chowdhary, NSN's head of India region, customer operations (east) said that the company had invested $75 million in the Chennai facility since it was opened in 2008.

The Espoo, Finland-based company had said in April last year that it plans to invest an additional Rs105 crore at its Oragadam facility to became the country's first telecommunications infrastructure vendor to manufacture 3G products locally. (See: Nokia Siemens Networks rolls out 3G products from Chennai plant)