India accounts one third of offshored telecom R&D market

Bangalore: India accounts for about one-third of the outsourced telecom R&D market, including the R&D centres of global telecom firms and telecom R&D service providers, says a study. Also, the study stated that about 52 percent of India's telecom R&D market is captured by both MNC and domestic service providers such as Aricent, Wipro, TCS, HCL, Tech Mahindra, and may more.

According to a study - 'Analysis of telecom R&D in India - An MNC and vendor perspective' conducted by the Bangalore-based consulting and research company Knowledgefaber, highlights the fact that post 2000, a large number of telecom companies set up their R&D centres in India to cut costs. Due to factors like lower costs, available talent, a sizable R&D vendor base and growing domestic market, India has been successful in attracting R&D work from global telecom companies.

Knowledgefaber says that the availability of talent, both fresh and skilled, has been a major factor in attracting global telecom companies to set up their R&D bases in India. The country has a base of over 120 global telecom companies with their R&D centres employing over 25,000 people. The five leading telecom R&D employers in India are Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola, Nokia Siemens, Cisco and Siemens. Also, a significant percentage of telecom R&D professionals are spread across Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, thus causing R&D centres to be set up in these cities.