Alcatel-Lucent keen on Kolkata WiMAX

KOLKATA: West Bengal government has received a proposal from France’s Alcatel-Lucent to set up Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) network infrastructure across Kolkata. The state is also considering a proposal to make Kolkata a Wi-Fi hotspot enabling seamless wireless high-speed internet access for general public.

This apart, global consulting major Capgemini plans to expand city operations by developing a campus which will be one of their global ‘centres of excellence’. These proposals come at a time when a state IT department team, led by state IT minister Debesh Das and state IT secretary Mr Siddharth, is on Europe tour to attract investments.

Confirming the development, Mr Siddharth told ET from Germany: “We’ve had discussions with the senior management of Alcatel-Lucent, which is very keen to set up a WiMAX network in Kolkata. The state is also keen to make Kolkata a Wi-Fi hub. However, finer details are yet to be worked out with Alcatel-Lucent.”

Incidentally, Alcatel is already working with the Center for the Development of Telematics (C-DOT) in India to develop designs for cost-optimised WiMAX end-user devices. Alcatel-Lucent has identified India as a priority market for deployment of cost-effective WiMAX services across the entire value-chain.

On the other hand, Capgemini, which employs some 1,000-odd people in Kolkata, wants to set up a dedicated campus. “Capgemini’s Kolkata facility has grown at the fastest clip across all its global facilities. The company’s top brass showed huge confidence in Kolkata and wants to make this unit their ‘global centre of excellence’,” Mr Siddharth said.

The state IT delegation is touring Germany and had earlier met potential investors in Paris and London. In the London leg, Webel had organised an investors meet to hardsell the state. The government’s target audience included IT, ITeS and semiconductor firms. This includes venture capital funding for start-up VLSI firms as well as attracting potential investors such as MosChip Semiconductor.