Japanese major NEC Corporation will manufacture mobile network equipment in Chennai. This will be its first production facility in the country.

NEC will establish a new Pasolink – widely adopted as a microwave communications system to link mobile base stations – production unit in the special economic zone. It has a similar facility in Fukushima, Japan, for wireless communication equipment, including Pasolink.

NEC plans to commence operations at the new unit within the fiscal year ending March 2012. It also plans to expand local procurement of material within India in the future. Launched in the early 1980s, Pasolink offers high speed split-type access radio designed for very reliable, high quality local digital access networks.

Since then nearly 1.7 million units of Pasolink have been shipped to 145 countries, according to information available in NEC Web site.

NEC, a global leader in microwave radio link devices, said it is expanding Pasolink internationally to increase its competitiveness against global vendors in the face of a rapidly strengthening Yen. It is taking proactive measures to gain presence in expanding markets such as India.

There is no India specific data for Pasolink. However, the Indian telecom equipment market is estimated to be Rs 1,17,039 crore in 2010-11 with Nokia, Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks as top three players, according to a recent Voice & Data report.

While there is no official information on the investment and production capacity, Reuters news quoting Nikkei reported that NEC will invest $13 million (Rs 68 crore) in the facility to annually produce nearly 30,000 units of Pasolink.

Since establishing NEC India in 2006, the Japanese company integrates information technology and networking technologies for clients across governments, businesses, individuals and society.

NEC India provides and develops solutions for carrier network, unified communications, retail, security and surveillance systems, information technology and multimedia products such as projectors. It has around 250 employees and revenue of over Rs 250 crore, according to sources.

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