Verizon Labs to double headcount in India

Verizon Communications, one of the world's largest telecom companies, is looking to double its headcount in its Labs division in India, according to Guru Pai, the global Chief Product officer and Senior VP of the company.

In 2015, Verizon had revenues of $131.62 billion and net income of $17.87 billion. While Verizon does not have a consumer telecom business in India, it is present in enterprise data services through AOL India. It might be recalled that in June 2015, Verizon acquired AOL (America Online) for $4.4 billion.

Formed in 2013, Verizon Labs is a technology centre of excellence for the company. The labs works in several different areas, and the technology developed is used inside Verizon's products and core networks.

The Pai-led Verizon Labs (VL) has developed the company's interent offerings - FiOS Quantum TV and its OTT (Over The Top) Video as well as IPTV solutions. "From ThingSpace, which is our Internet of Things (IoT) platform, to secure cloud interconnect offerings, Orion - our Big Data and Predictive analytics platform, VL has several achievements to its credit. We are moving from being a mere network/carrier company to also one which has value added offerings like applications," says Pai.

The Indian arm of Verizon Labs is a wholly owned subsidiary of Verizon Data Services India. "Verizon Labs India is the only facility of its kind outside of the US. VL India has contributed to all our global products. We hire high-end product development talent and growth of the India labs is dependent only on the quality of talent available here," says Pai. Verizon India Labs will double headcount from 200 to 400 by December 2017. Globally Verizon Labs employs about 2,000 people of its total workforce of about 180,000.

Verizon already outsources a large amount of system integration, application maintenance and development work to Indian IT companies such as Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, TCS, Wipro and Infosys. "While I cannot take specific names, yes we do work with a number of Indian IT companies," Pai added.

VL Labs, however, focuses on high-end work. "The India labs team works closely with their global peers in the company to deliver world-class products and services. I expect with addition of more people, this will accelerate even further," he added.