A soldier uses a walkie-talkie. (Reuters)

So often, it?s branded basic and even boring. Yet, the walkie-talkie is much more than the everyday equipment used by the police, the army and the railways. Often, mostly during emergencies, the seemingly rudimentary tech tool proves to be a crucial communication link.

Calcutta-based Simoco Telecommunications is tying up with China?s largest manufacturer of wireless equipment, HYT Science & Technology, to offer ?cheaper and more robust? walkie-talkies for Indian and global customers.

?The market for wireless equipment in India is currently worth Rs 60-70 crore and is expected to reach Rs 100 crore in the next three years,? said Sanjay Ghosh, managing director of Simoco Telecommunications.

Simoco will be working with the Shenzhen-based HYT to develop a new product line in the ?next 12 to 16 months?.

?This will be the first technology handshake between an Indian and a Chinese company in the field of two-way wireless equipment,? said Ghosh. HYT, ?which occupies 60 per cent of the Chinese market?, also plans to invest in India for a joint venture with Simoco, he added.

The 25-year-old company counts among its clients the state and city police forces, coal mines, the Indian Army, Indian Railways, CRPF and more. Besides a 50,000-sq-ft manufacturing facility at Salt Lake, Simoco has a 9,000 sq-ft unit at Cambridge, UK.

Civilian use of walkie-talkies is severely restricted. Licences need to be procured for possessing the sets. ?One of the problems with the systems used by administrative bodies here is that they are in broadcast mode, so when one person calls, everyone else has to listen and that one call occupies the entire network,? explained Ghosh.

To clear the bottleneck, the company is working on systems that would function like private automatic branch exchange (PABX), allowing ?even 20 people to communicate together?. Security issues would also be better addressed.

?We have recently received orders worth Rs 5 crore from Ceylon Electricity Board and Kenya Police,? Ghosh said.