VOL. 7 NO. 17 MH/BY/SOUTH-207, 8 JULY 1996

George Eby Mathew, Bangalore

NCORE Technology, a subnotebook and PCMCIA card exporter will roll out its own 28.8 Kbps high-speed data/fax/voice modem in September this year. Ncore will be the first Indian company to design and manufacture modems in India. The company plans to export these modems and is also looking at selling them within the country.

The company had earlier earned the distinction of developing the world’s lightest sub-notebooks--christened Yantra--which is currently marketed in Japan (EC 1 Jan 1996).

The company is considering various manufacturing options. The company’s chairman, Vinay Deshpande told Express Computer that Ncore may set up a subsidiary to manufacture these modems in India, as Ncore is a 100 percent export-oriented unit. The other options being evaluated are the licensing of the design to third parties for which Ncore will earn royalties and that of selling its products to distributors who will market them under their own brand name. Deshpande added that the company has been approached by a leading hardware vendor to manufacture the modem in India.

Based on manufacturing plans, the company will decide on the volumes that it will produce for the Indian market. It plans to appoint distributors abroad to sell the modems. Ncore already has enquiries from a number of OEMs abroad for licensing the design for integration with their products. One of the possible partners is a German company that may develop ISDN interfaces using the Ncore modem design.

Ncore’s modem is DSP-based and complies with V.34 and V.42 compression standards. It will offer a throughput of 28.8 Kbps. The company is yet to price the modem, but Deshpande said that it will be at least 20 percent cheaper than the existing products. “It is too early to disclose the pricing which will depend on the market dynamics at the time of the launch,” he said. “But it should be in the Rs 15,000 range on the outside.

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