Sonus Networks has opened a sales, marketing and support office in Mumbai, India, to capitalize on a growing market for telecommunications equipment in the region.
The Westford, Mass., company also hired Mahinder Mansukhani country director. Mansukhani, who started last week, is a former executive with Sify Ltd., India’s largest network and e-commerce services company.
He is responsible for contacting carriers and developing reseller and channel partners. Previously, he worked for Cisco Systems India.
“We will be bringing on a systems engineer shortly, and then we will continue to expand our staff as we build our business there,” a Sonus spokeswoman told internetnews.com.
Sonus’ packet voice offerings are particularly well-suited for “green field” deployments where there is minimal existing infrastructure, Sonus said. Service providers can build systems and deliver voice services more easily and cost-effectively than with legacy circuit equipment.
Regulatory changes have recently jump-started India’s telecom industry. Some analysts estimate the country’s “teledensity,” or phone lines per 100 people, will grow from 5 percent in 2003, to 7 percent by 2005, and 15 percent by 2010.
Further, approximately 75 million telephone connections are to be added in India by 2005 and 175 million by 2010.
During its most recent quarter, 6-year-old Sonus reported narrower losses, in part, on overseas customers wins. In addition to India, Sonus also has offices in Japan, China, Malaysia, Singapore as well as England, France and Germany.
