Kejian Corporation Ltd., one of China's leading mobile handsets makers, Tuesday announced the launch of its products in India with a view to corner a larger shares of the booming local cellular telephone industry.

The Chinese company has tied up with India's Trust Telecom Technologies Private Ltd. for distribution and marketing of Kejianmobile handsets in India and neighboring countries.

"We see in India one of the fastest and largest cell phone markets in the world," Kok Kin Hok, President of Kejian Corporation Ltd., told a press conference here.

"We will bring in a range of high quality and feature rich mobile phones with superior looks and finish at prices that can beafforded by the Indian masses," he added.

The company will initially sell four models mobile handsets through a chain of 1,600 stores all across the country. The prices for the models will range from Rs.4,905 (109 US dollars) to Rs.16,650 (370 US dollars).

Vivek Rajgarhia, chief executive officer of Trust Telecom, saidthe company would introduce more handset models and increase the number of retailers in a phased manner over the next couple of years.

"Our aim is to compete with the new entrants in the Indian mobile market in the first year. Over the next three years, we want to feature among the top three mobile phone companies in India," he said.

India has 28 million mobile phone users, up from just 10 million a year ago. The country, Asia's third largest economy, is adding at least one million new mobile phone users every month.

According to tech industry research firm Gartner, the number ofcellular phone subscribers in India will rise to about 70 million by the end 2007 on the back of cut rate prices.

Recent entrants in the Indian mobile handsets market include BenQ of Taiwan, Bird International of China, DBTEL of Taiwan, Kyocera of Japan and Alcatel of France.

Source: Xinhua