Airtel, India’s leading mobile services provider, and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) announced plans to launch the BlackBerry® 7130ghandset in India later this month.

Working on EDGE and GPRS networks, thenewBlackBerry 7130g allows users to stay connected to both work and life with support for push-based email, phone, text messaging, browser, organizer and other mobile applications.

The quad-band BlackBerry 7130g comes with a powerful processorand64 MB of flash memory, providing users a fast and responsive experience when browsing the Internet, viewing attachments or running other mobile applications.

“We have always believed in bringing more choices to suit our customers’ requirements. This quad-band EDGE-enabled BlackBerry 7130g will undoubtedly appeal to Airtel’s customers who seek a more phone-centric device that brings the BlackBerry advantage,” Sanjay Kapoor, Joint President, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel Limited said.

“The new BlackBerry 7130g is an exciting addition to the BlackBerry portfolio in India,” said Norm Lo, Vice President of Asia Pacific at RIM. “Together with the comprehensive and powerful BlackBerry platform, the BlackBerry 7130g delivers an all-in-one solution with a unique user experience.”

The BlackBerry 7130g includes premium phone features includingdedicated phone keys, smart dialing, conference calling, speed dial, call forwarding, speakerphone and BluetoothВ® support for wireless headsets and car kits.

The handset’s brightandhigh-resolution color LCD screenfeaturesan intelligent light sensing technology that automatically adjusts both the display and keyboard lighting levels to provide an optimised view in outdoor, indoor and dark environments.

In addition, the BlackBerry 7130g incorporates RIM’s innovative SureTypeв„ў keyboard technology, which merges a phone keypad with a familiar QWERTY keyboard to enable a narrower design while allowing users to type quickly and accurately.

For corporate customers, BlackBerryВ® Enterprise Server software tightly integrates with MicrosoftВ® Exchange, IBM LotusВ® DominoВ® and NovellВ® GroupWiseВ® and works with existing enterprise systems to enable secure, push-based wireless access to email and other corporate data.

For individuals and smaller businesses, BlackBerryВ® Internet Service allows users to access up to ten corporate and personal email accounts (including Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and most popular ISP email accounts) from a single device.

A large and growing ecosystem of independent software vendors (ISVs) has developed a variety of applications for BlackBerry in areas including entertainment, games, ring tones and personalization. In addition, for corporate customers with BlackBerry Enterprise Server, third-party mobile business solutions are available for sales force automation, field service automation, network and systems

Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced that it has been selected by India’s Tata Group to expand the existing optical multi-service network, thus enhancing the delivery of mobile and broadband services throughout the country. Extending Tata’s existing network coverage to additional regions in the country, this USD 20 million project will deliver one of the largest network deployments in India.

Alcatel’s solution will enable Tata to further enhance the roll out of CDMA mobile services, as well as to support new broadband services and Ethernet applications throughout the states of Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Additionally, it will provide a highly efficient and reliable platform for the backhaul of traffic over Tata’s existing mobile network.

The expanded optical transport network will meet 70% of the transmission requirements of Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) – the leading private telecom operator in India, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) – India’s leading international telecommunications service provider and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited (TTML), the leading telecom services provider in Maharashtra. TTSL, VSNL and TTML are all part of the Tata Group.

Alcatel’s optical multi-service transport solution will help us significantly enhance the transport network infrastructure in India to offer freedom of service accessibility and further create value to our subscribers,” said Mr. Darryl Green, CEO Tata Teleservices Ltd.

“India is a rapidly evolving telecom market with diversified customer requirements,” said Romano Valussi, President of Alcatel’s optical networking activities. “The capabilities offered by Alcatel’s OMSNs and WDM equipment allow Tata to cope with the new service needs of its growing subscriber base.”

The award follows the contracts signed in 2004 for the deployment of the existing optical transport network. Alcatel’s optical networking solution include its data-aware Optical Multi-Service Node (OMSN) systems and 1696 MS DWDM equipment, both managed by the 1350 management suite. Alcatel will be also responsible for the complete project management, engineering, installation, service activation and commissioning.

In keeping with its strong commitment to India, Motorola (NYSE:MOT) today announced plans for a manufacturing facility with an initial investment of US $30 million. This will be scaled up to a total of US$100 million in phases. The company will establish a manufacturing plant in the 300 acre Sriperumbadur Hi-tech Special Economic Zone (SEZ) being developed jointly by Motorola and Government of Tamilnadu at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai.

Speaking on the occasion, the Union Minister for Telecom & IT, Thiru Dayanidhi Maran said “It gives me great pleasure to be part of yet another milestone achieved by the telecommunications industry. Motorola’s manufacturing facility being set up in the Sriperumbadur Hi-tech SEZ will be a further catalyst to bringing the highest level of technology and electronics manufacturing into the country. The Sriperumbadur Hi-tech SEZ being developed jointly by the state government and Motorola, when fully operational is expected to make Sriperumbadur the electronics manufacturing hub of the country. I congratulate Motorola for yet another major effort in connecting the unconnected and accelerating the country’s telecom revolution.”

Ron Garriques, executive vice president, Motorola Inc. and president, mobile devices business, highlighting the importance of India to Motorola’s global plans, said “India is a vitally important market for Motorola and as a strategic manufacturing hub offers a compelling value-proposition of best-in-class talent and strong cost efficiencies. Our decision to make an investment of this scale is a reflection of our continued global commitment to connect the next billion consumers.”

Expected to be operational in 2007, the state-of-the-art facility will undertake full-scale production, to support a wide range of Motorola handsets. It will also support production and assembly of network base stations for products across Motorola’s Networks & Enterprise portfolio.

“We have long been engaged in high-end �soft manufacturing’ and creating intellectual property in the country. With this Motorola owned facility we come full circle, delivering on the promise of leveraging India’s intrinsic advantages: excellent IT skills, exceptional scientific talent, competent, mature workforce and economies of scale offered by a vast market” said Firdose Vandrevala, chairman, Motorola India and corporate vice president, Motorola Inc.

Motorola’s manufacturing initiative will supplement the presence of its six R&D centres in India, including Motorola Labs, Core Networks Division, Embedded Communications Computing, and Global Software Group. These are run by approximately 3000 highly skilled engineers. Motorola established its R&D facilities at Bangalore in 1991 through its Global Software Group (GSG) which is the company’s research and development arm for software engineering. GSG does cutting-edge work for the entire range of Motorola’s products, including next generation wireless and broadband technologies, software platforms and application frameworks