Tech Telecom

Huawei, the world’s third largest smartphone seller will start manufacturing handsets in India by this month end in partnership contract with Flextronics. The devices will be made in an assembly plant near Chennai where Lenovo and Motorola smartphones are already made.

“Huawei may begin with a capacity of 200,000 units a month, but it can scale up rapidly as the plant has enough capacity to take on more orders,” said one of the persons, who did not wish to be identified.

The company may start with some of its latest models such as Honor 5C or Huawei P9, even as it may make multiple models at the facility, the person said.

Huawei entered India almost two decades ago and started research and development centre in 1999, the approval to make telecom equipment was given last year. In the last month, the largest global service centre was opened in Bengaluru which will employ about 1000 engineers, network operations specialists and support staff, supporting more than 30 countries in Asia, West Asia and Africa, and serving over 350 million subscribers.

According to reports Flextronics assembly plant holds a capacity of 1.3 million units a month. Huawei sells phones through Huawei and Honor brands in India is planning to increase its presence across by setting up own branded 50,000 stores by the year end.