Pantel Technolgies to start local manufacturing of smartphones, tablets from August

By Danish Khan

NEW DELHI: Noida-based tablet and mobile phone maker Pantel Technologies is establishing three new plants to locally manufacture tablets and smartphones in a tie-up with three Taiwanese technology companies at a total investment of Rs 100 crore.

Pantel Managing Director Vijender Singh told ET that the company is investing Rs 60 crore towards these units, while the foreign companies together are investing Rs 40 crore. “We plan to start manufacturing of tablets and smartphones by August 15, 2014,” he said.

One facility in Noida is being established to make tablets, while smartphones will be produced at the other two manufacturing facilities being set up in Roorkee.

Singh said that Pantel’s foreign partners will bring technology support for LCD, touch panel, batteries and printed circuit boards.

The Indian company also plans to bring 4G LTE smartphones and tablets by September this year. “We are looking at launching an $80 4G smartphone and $100 4G tablet in the country.

Pantel has also inked an agreement with Korea's smartphone major Samsung for camera modules to be used in Pantel’s upcoming smartphones.

Till now, Pantel has been doing third-party assembling of tablets, feature and smartphones in the country.

The company is supplying its tablets to parts of the Middle-East through its partnership with Omantel, and with its additional capacity, it will now target the entire middle-eastern and some Asian markets.

Pantel has been selling more than 50,000 tablets per month in India, while global shipments are around 100,000 tablets every month, Singh said.

The device maker offers just two smartphones in India as of now. It though recently introduced a range of feature phones priced below Rs 2,000 in partnership with state-run telecom operator BSNL. It recently tied up with India Post to take its low-cost feature phone to rural areas.

Pantel is also providing tablets in Meghalaya, Chattisgarh and Goa for the government’s educational projects. It had also won a tender for a school project in Mauritius last year.

According to Singh, Pantel also supplied tablets to the Tamil Nadu government, which distributed 10.1 inch tablets to all district collectors last month.

The company has offices in Hongkong, Shenzhen, Mauritius, and Auckland and in Middle Eastern countries.

At present, the company has 250 employees and expect to hire 200 more people for new units this year.