Intel is teaming up with BPL Telecom of India and starting a joint venture company that will make dual-purpose GSM mobile-cum-WiFi phones in India. The details are sketchy, except these phones are for the US market place. BPL Telecom also has a licensing arrangement with Texas Instruments to source mobile chipsets to make entry-level cellular phones at its Palakkad unit in Kerala. Another Indian company, Munoth Communications has been selling cell phones for about eight months now, selling about 1,000 units a month, though I suspect they are getting all the manufacturing done somewhere in Korea. Which makes it pretty much pointless.
Munoth does import the sets it sells – only the brand is Indian. At least that is what I read in the papers some time back. I also think that the sets come in from China.
Talking of manufacturing handsets in India, I believe Kyocera is getting into the act with about 25,000 a year. Nokia might also finally honor the long time commitment to manufacture in India, with their biggest supplier already in.