NEW DELHI : Micro-chip giant Texas Instruments said on Wednesday it plans to expand its research and development presence in India by opening a new facility in the southern city of Chennai, an upcoming technology hub.

Texas makes chips for everything from flat-panel TVs to calculators, and is the world's leading producer of those used in mobile phones. Almost three in every five handsets are powered by chips made by the company.

The Dallas-based firm already has a research unit in Bangalore, India's tech capital, one of the first to be set up in India by a multinational firm more than two decades ago.

Gilles Delfassy, senior vice president for handset business at Texas, said India's fast-paced wireless services market - which adds more than four million new users each month - offered opportunities for the firm.

"Mobile phone growth in India is nothing short of a phenomenon, and the wireless industry waits for India's next move because of the impact it will have on the future of mobile phones," Delfassy said. The new unit would be close to the Chennai manufacturing plants of major customers, such as handset giant Nokia and Flextronics. The city is also home to Indian Institute of Technology, a globally recognised engineering college.

The Bangalore facility has been an integral part of the company's efforts to develop a single chip housing all the functionalities of a phone, a development that would cut costs.

India has set a target of 250 million telephone users by 2007, and currently has 104 million wireless customers. Apart from a booming telecoms market, it is also a globally feted hub for software services. A growing tribe of companies such as Motorola Inc and ABN Amro Bank get millions of dollars worth of software developed in India.