HIT (Hyundai India Telecom) has recently announced that it will invest US$50 million over the next five years to set up handset production facilities and an R&D center in India, a move aimed at further tapping into resources and talent in this market. 

 

The new plant will be equipped with five assembly lines running a daily capacity of 4,000 units and an annual capacity of 1.2 million units in the first year. Depending on demand, such capacity can be increased three-fold. Both GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) will be manufactured, and 50% of the output will be oriented toward markets in SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) regions. 

 

In addition, HIT's new R&D center will focus on hardware technology research as well as software development, with an R&D intensity of 3% to 5%. HIT is currently seeking possible cooperative links with major India software companies to provide localized mobile applications and software for such handsets. 

 

Hyundai earlier entered the Indian market in a partnership with State Trading Cooperation, looking to tap into the booming demand for handsets.