Ericsson plans to invest $100 mn in India every year

Company to offer platform for triple play to operators on a single line.

Swedish telecom equipment major Ericsson said that the company would invest $100 million in the country every year.

"We are committing an investment of $100 million every year and we shall continue to do so as long as we are getting returns on our investment," said Mats Granyrd, country head (India) of Ericsson.

"We view India as one of the potential market for telecom services, be it mobile, wireline or broadband and this will continue for some more years," Granyrd said.

The company also announced that in total, it had rolled out a million wireline broadband lines in India, for all operators combined (both GSM and CDMA) and added that it had a 40 per cent market share in this sector.

Ericsson's future plans for the country include offering the platform for triple play to operators on a single line and also working with mobile operators towards broadcasting live feed on mobile handsets.

"We are in talks with various operators including state owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Bharti Airtel and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd," he said.

According to him, Ericsson was jointly working with MTNL to help the PSU overcome the supply crunch in modems for broadband connections.

"Demand for fixed broadband has grown faster than anticipated and this led to initial problems in the supply of modems to MTNL. We are looking at alternate sources for procuring the equipment," Granyrd said.

MTNL had originally placed the order for 3.75 lakh broadband lines from Ericsson which was later increased to five lakh, while for the modems, the initial order of 1.5 lakh was later enhanced to 2.5 lakh.