French telecom firm Alcatel is evaluating the option of setting up a research and development centre in Bangalore for its global requirements.

The company is also planning to bring in new software development projects to its two existing centres in India.

"With the kind of infrastructure in Bangalore, the option to set up a new centre is enticing. But there are no immediate plans. We would be going to Bangalore to take a look at the option," said Neil Ransom, chief technology officer, Alcatel, on the sidelines of Convergence India 2004.  

Ransom said with high quality of skill sets available in India in the area of software development, Alcatel would be bringing in new projects to its existing centres in Delhi and Chennai.

"I have put together a plan where the amount of work for each of our divisions increases. The way we work, we do not assign an entire project to one centre. It is distributed between our facilities in China, India and Stuttgart depending on the expertise which each of the centres have developed over the years," Ransom said.

He said that broadband is the next big thing to happen in the Indian telecom market. "While broadband has already happened in other parts of the world, in India it is clearly the next big driver of growth. The broadband growth in India would be primarily through the DSL technology instead of wireless technologies since there is a high density of target users. Wireless broadband may be useful in rural areas," Branson said.