Conax's move to establish an Indian operation center with conditional access experts is the result of recent contracts with the Essel Group and Cablecomm, says a company release.

The SchweConax' subsidiary will be officially opened by Norwegian Ambassador in India Truls Hanevold, today, on 23 October. In addition to technical operation and local support, Conax also plans to develop and test set-top boxes software in India.

The technical operations centre is established in Delhi. In a bid to strengthen their position in Asia, Conax has signed up with several operators in the Asian region during the last year.

According to Conax CEO Bent Brugård, "India is an important market within the Asian region, and after the decision of the Indian parliament to make CAS mandatory, the suppliers of conditional access have strengthened their focus on the growing Indian market. The set-up of technical operations centre will allow us to serve India and the Asian region in an improved manner and to provide Essel and Cablecomm with the needed CAS and local support."

Established as Conax Access Systems Private Limited, the company will be managed by CEO Ranjit Nigam. According to Nigam, "In addition to technical operation and local support, Conax plans to start with software development and testing of set-top boxes in India. Hence, there will be an extensive transfer of knowledge from the head office in Norway. We expect the Indian subsidiary to expand with regard to number of employees in the months to come. This makes Conax the only CA provider with such strong presence in the Indian market."