Motorola’s Warrior bets on Wi-Max, 4G

HYDERABAD: If Motorola Inc’s executive vice- president and chief technology officer Padmasree Warrior is to be believed, the future of the $35 billion telecom giant clearly lies in Wi-Max and 4G.

That will be a step-and-a-half above the 2.5G technologies prevalent in India and a generation ahead of the 3G networks that BSNL is seeking to rollout with its impending order for equipment worth $5 billion, the biggest single order placed by any telecom firm in the  world so far.

Given the statement by Warrior, who is now seen as the India IT industry’s poster girl and rated one of the four most influential women executives by Fortune magazine recently, Motorola’s war on BSNL  for being ruled out on technical grounds comes as a surprise.

Motorla has taken BSNL to court for being disqualified for the tender in which Ericsson’s bid emerged the lowest at $107 per line. Motorola had partnered with Lucent and Huwaei for the order. The case comes up for hearing in the Delhi high court on November 2.

According to industry sources, the evaluation committee had found Motorola in some respects in technologies for value added services and  3G, which perhaps explains the three-party bid that the multinational had put in. The committee, according to these sources, had thought these partners may not be in a position to fill the technology gaps.
Talking on the sidelines of the inauguration of Motorola’s R&D centre here by company chairman and CEO Edward Zanders, Warrior said the company would continue to look for partners in the Wi-Max and 4G  space. It has tied up with Sprint Nextel for Wi-Max.

Motorola has the proprietary Canopy wireless broadband solution which it has taken up in Rajasthan for a pilot project. The company is also talking to other state governments including Andhra Pradesh to explore  the possibility of deploying the Canopy networks.

Meanwhile, Motorola will launch the sub-$40 Motofone in India by the end of this year. The model has been introduced in other countries last July, she said. The model will challenge market leader Nokia in the cheap handset segment.

The Hyderabad R&D centre has a capacity to house 1000 developers. Cumulatively, Motorola has put in investments of about $150 million in Hyderabad since 1998.