TVS ICS to make Argus antennae in Madurai

Bangalore, May 19: TVS Interconnect Systems (TVS ICS), part of the three billion Dollar TVS Group, will produce antennae for mobile telephone base stations under technology transfer from Argus Technologies of Australia, from September.

The company, which had won a Rs 4.69 crore order from the Reliance Group, would make an initial investment of Rs 10 crore in the manufacturing plant in Madurai. The investment would subsequently increase to Rs 50 crore, Company Chief Technology Officer R Guruprasad told newspersons here today.

Argus Director for Sales and Marketing David White told UNI that the company was also planning to use the manufacturing plant at Madurai for export of antennae to other countries.

He said the company presently had two manufacturing plants in Australia and China. The agreement with TVS ICS also had a provision for a joint venture which would be explored at a later date.

Mr Guruprasad said as part of the plans, an outdoor antenna testing range was also being set up to test antennae under controlled environment. This was the first time that such a facility was being set outside the research establishments in the country.

Mr White said apart from Reliance, there were several trials currently on by various telecom companies and multinationals which might yield a sizeable order.

TVS ICS, with a turnover of Rs 121 crore, was aiming to cash in on the mobile telecom mob and was providing total telecom solutions.

It was partnering with Siemens for providing network solutions to Hyderabad and Bangalore International airports. The order included design supply and installation of structured cabling and Layer three switching with 10 gbps with secured managed network, Mr S Ashok Business Head for Networking, said.

UNI