Lucent opens research centre in Bangalore

Thursday, 23 December 2004, 20:30 IST
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BANGALORE: Lucent Technologies Wednesday opened its Bell Labs research centre in India's IT capital to undertake basic and applied research in communications software. As an integral part of Bell Labs, the US-based $9-billion global telecom major's research and development arm, the Bangalore facility will employ about 25 scientists in the next 18 months. "The scientists will focus on developing state-of-the-art software systems for enabling the world's leading wire-line and wireless service providers to deploy and manage high-speed, reliable networks," said Jeff Jaffe, president of research and advanced technologies at Bell Labs. Karnataka Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh inaugurated the research centre at Lucent's development facility in the International Technology Parks Ltd (ITPL) on the outskirts of the city at Whitefield. Some focus areas of the research centre will be computer algorithms, networking, network management and data management. "The setting up of a Bell Labs research centre in India signifies Lucent's commitment to creating a long-term presence here," Jaffe said. "The scientists will be members of the elite Bell Labs research community. We expect them to contribute fundamental advances to our understanding of how to build, monitor and manage the most complex and interactive global communication networks." According to Bell Labs research executive director in India, Rajeev Rastogi, the Bangalore centre will conduct fundamental and applied research in scientific fields related to computing and communications software. "We will partner closely with Lucent's customers as they deploy new technologies such as wireless data, EVDO (evolution data only) and devise innovative solutions to their challenges," Rastogi said. In addition to conducting scientific research, the centre will support the work done in Lucent's development labs in Bangalore and Hyderabad, besides meeting the needs of customers in the subcontinent. Minister of State for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal could not make it to the inaugural function as his flight from Delhi was delayed by heavy fog. Technocrat Sam Pitroda, who pioneered India's telecom revolution, stressed the need to focus on speedy deployment of broadband for high-speed connectivity.
Source: IANS
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