Spice launches mobile phones in Bangalore

Spice Ltd, a group company of $250 million M Corp Global, headed by B K Modi, plans to set up a manufacturing plant for making mobile phones in India during the third quarter of this year.

It aims to make use of its existing facility at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh, where it presently assembles computers, laptops and accessories.

Said Kunal Ahuja, CEO, Spice Limited, "We are presently getting our handsets assembled in Taiwan and are in the process of working out the details of investment required for setting up our own assembly unit in India. We plan to put up the facility during the third quarter of the year."

The plant will be operational by early 2007. Presently, the company outsources its handsets from two OEM suppliers in Taiwan - Wistron Neweb Corp and Inventec. The chipset and software are developed by a Noida-based software firm Mediatek.

Speaking to reporters after launching the mobile phones under the 'Spice' brand here on Thursday, he said, "As a step to widen our national reach we are now launching Spice mobiles in Karnataka with a focus on tier II and tier III cities."

With increasing the tele-density, Spice Ltd plans to focus on building its brand nationwide and expand its reach to small and mid-sized towns in India. By March-end Spice aims to release two camera phones and another phone with built-in FM radio in May this year, Ahuja said.