Nokia sees India as 2nd biggest market by 2010

MUMBAI: Nokia expects India to become its second-largest market by volume by 2010, or even sooner, the world's top cellphone maker said on Monday.

India is currently the third-largest market for Nokia in terms of volume. It had shipped 25 million handsets as of December 2006 from its factory near Chennai in southern India, with 80 percent of the production sold in the domestic market.

Nokia, which employed 3,800 people at the facility against a projected 2,000, said it was expanding floor space to 53,000 sq metres from 30,000 sq metres as part of a planned $150 million investment.

The Nokia Telecom Park in Sriperumbudur, which was inaugurated in March 2006, will also house seven component makers who are expected to commence operations by mid-2007, it said in a statement.

The facility has the potential to employ 20,000 people by 2008, when it is fully operational, it said.

The component makers are Salcomp, Aspocomp, Foxconn, Perlos, Laird, Jabil Circuit and Wintek.