ESPOO, Finland, May 31, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Nokia (NOK) today announced that it will establish a high-end Base Station Controller manufacturing unit in Chennai, India. The new unit will further emphasize Nokia's end-to-end position and strength both globally and in India, as well as the company's end-to-end commitment to India.

\"Nokia is confident of India's skilled labor force's ability to handle the manufacturing of high-end network infrastructure elements, such as Base Station Controllers. Chennai was a natural choice for us as we are already establishing a production facility there,\" said Simon Beresford-Wylie, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Networks, Nokia.

In April, Nokia announced its plans to set up a mobile device production facility in Chennai. Base Station Controller production will begin at the same time with terminal production, during the first half of 2006. With this, Nokia becomes the only telecom vendor in India to manufacture both network infrastructure and terminals in the country.

The announcement comes in the wake of fast expansion of networks in the Indian market based on aggressive plans of all the GSM service providers over the next few years. In India, Nokia Networks is a leading GSM infrastructure equipment supplier and supplies to all of the top five GSM operators in the country.

\"India is already amongst the top 5 telecom markets in the world and is set to reach the third position in the next few years. In order to sustain this growth, rapid expansion of mobile networks will be essential. Nokia's investment in local Base Station Controller manufacturing aims to meet this requirement and reiterates its long standing commitment to India,\" said Beresford-Wylie. He added, \"Base Station Controller manufacturing is high end and complex and will allow us to tap into the talented engineering pool in India, in addition to creating additional employment.\"

Nokia's operations in India now include three Research and Development facilities and an upcoming manufacturing facility in Chennai that will produce both terminals and GSM infrastructure equipment. The end-to-end operations strengthen Nokia's complete solution offering and uniquely position it to work with Indian operators to reduce time to market for both network equipment and terminals and achieve the Government's target of 200 million mobile subscribers by 2008.

Nokia is a world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia connects people to each other and the information that matters to them with easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, devices and solutions for imaging, games, media and businesses. Nokia provides equipment, solutions and services for network operators and corporations. http://www.nokia.com" rel="nofollow">LINK

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SOURCE Nokia

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Speech by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times....

"When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat our
vegetables at dinner and not leave them. Mothers said, 'think of the
starving children in India and finish the dinner.' And now I tell my
children: 'Finish your maths homework. Think of the children in India
who would make you starve, if you don't.'"