Nokia Building 3G Factory in China

Nokia plans to locate its second global 3G equipment manufacturing site in China. By choosing China, Nokia will become the latest in a stream of major mobile telecoms gear makers - including Germany’s Siemens and Canada’s Nortel Networks - to build a 3G manufacturing facility in the country. Nokia already has a 3G research and development centre in Suzhou, the centre employs more than 100 engineers, and is “expanding” its headcount.

Last year, Nokia also established a global sourcing centre in Suzhou.

“We plan to start manufacturing 3G WCDMA base stations in China in the first quarter of next year,” Sari Baldauf, executive vice-president of Nokia Corp and general manager of the firm’s network division, told China Business Weekly last week. Currently, Nokia manufactures 3G base stations only in its home country of Finland. Nokia will locate the new 3G base station manufacturing facility in Suzhou, a city neighbouring Shanghai. Continue >>