Ciena to invest 30 percent of its R&D spend in India

By siliconindia   |   Monday, 18 December 2006, 18:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Ciena, a US-based networking company, is all set to make India its next R&D hub. The company has lined up a slew of initiatives for its Indian operations, including bringing 30 per cent of its global investments in research and development to its Indian center over the next year, reported the Business Line. The company has set up a 95,000 sq ft R&D center in Gurgaon its first outside North America. They plan to increase their headcount in India from 150 to 350 by the end of next year. The center will focus on technologies such as storage extension and optical transport, as well as multi-service switching, broadband access and network management. The company is also reported to be mulling over setting up a manufacturing plant in India as part of its strategy to make inroads to the world's fastest growing telecom market. Speaking to Business Line, Phil Moser, Vice-President (Sales Asia), said: "India is not just a big market for us but also a key part of our global expansion strategy as far as investments are concerned." "Our Gurgaon development center will enable us to take advantage of on the significantly strong engineering resources in this region, and will establish Ciena in one of the fastest growing communications equipment markets in the world," he added. Ciena manufactures application-focused communications networking equipment; software and services telecommunications service providers, cable operators, and Government and enterprise customers across the globe. A staff of 1,500 worldwide provides network solutions for more than two-thirds of the world's largest service providers, that include AT&T, British Telecom, Cable & Wireless, France Telecom, Korea Telecom. In India, Reliance Infocomm's acquisition of TyCom and Tata Teleservices' takeover of FLAG Telecom have facilitated the companies' leveraging advanced optical Ciena networks.