ASIA — Huawei Technologies Limited (HTL), the $2.6-billion Chinese telecom giant, has chosen Bangalore for its largest software development center (SDC) outside China.
The facility will be used for advanced research and development (R&D) in telecommunications and networking solutions, especially third generation (3G) systems.
Huawei has so far invested $8 million in the center in Bangalore, set up in mid-1999 to tap into India’s software skills, Huawei India’s Chief Operating Officer Jack Lu told a press conference.
“We have been quiet in India so far as we used this period to learn,” Lu said at the firm’s first public announcement. “We are now confident that we can make this our largest technology development center in the next five years.”
The company currently has 280 people at the Huawei development center in Bangalore. It also plans to expand its employee strength to over 600 in the next one-year in sophisticated software product development and R&D. In addition, there are around 600 partner employees who are fully dedicated to supporting Huawei’s joint venture projects.
“By the end of the year, about 70 percent of our engineers will be Indian and will go up to 85 percent over the next two years,” Lu said.
Lu said that the Bangalore center would conduct development and testing of software for mission-critical resources and deliver world class technologies, including wideband switching, embedded systems, 3G mobile communications, wireless infrastructure, network management, data communications, intelligent networks, and IP applications like VoIP.
“Huawei India’s activities cover end-to-end ownership of products ranging from front-end process line and system conceptualization to software development, testing, and time-to-market delivery,” Lu added.
