C115 is a mass market phone based on the sub $40 handset category for emerging markets Motorola Inc. launched Thursday in India the C115, the company’s first mobile handset that is made in the country. Built on the C11x platform, the C115 is a mass market phone based on the sub US$40 handset category for emerging markets, and will retail in India for Indian Rupees 1700 (about $40), the company said.Although this product is currently being contract manufactured by an undisclosed company in India, Motorola is planning to set up a manufacturing facility in India soon, where it will take up the manufacture of the C115 and other models of handsets, said informed sources on condition of anonymity.Motorola of Schaumburg, Illinois announced earlier this year that it would be introducing in India by the end of the year the C115 handset that would be made in India, but did not give details of its manufacturing plans. A number of multinational telecommunications companies including Nokia Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd have announced plans to manufacture handsets in India. Their plans may have been influenced by a decision by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), a large government owned telecommunications services provider, to make it mandatory for its suppliers to manufacture equipment directly in India or through contract manufacturers in the country.The Indian government is planning to have 250 million telephone connections — both wired and wireless — in India by the end of 2007, which would take telephone penetration in the country to 22 percent of the population. The country had 120 million wired and wireless telephone subscribers at the end of November and a telephone penetration of about 11 percent, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in Delhi.Motorola already has large software development and research and development operations in the country. Technology Industry