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These days, we barely look up from our phones. 5G, video calls, instant messaging — it all feels like it has been here forever. But India's mobile revolution did not begin in Bangalore or Mumbai. It started in Kolkata, built on the back of a state government with serious ambition and a factory in Salt Lake that most people have never heard of.
On 31st July 1995, Chief Minister Jyoti Basu stood in Writers' Building and made the first mobile phone call in India. He rang the Union Telecom Minister in Delhi, Sukh Ram, and officially launched the mobile age. It was not just a photo opportunity. That call worked because the infrastructure behind it had already been built, and the West Bengal government had made sure of it.
The real story begins earlier, with a company called Webel Telematik. This was a joint venture set up by the state through WEBEL (West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation), partnering with Siemens, the German engineering giant. The idea was simple but bold: do not just buy telecom equipment from abroad — build it here. The heart of the operation was a factory in Salt Lake, Sector V. This was not a token assembly line. It was a full-scale manufacturing plant producing some of the most advanced telecommunications equipment in the world at the time.
The key product was something called the EWSD system — Electronic Worldwide Switch Digital. Think of it as the brain of the early mobile network. These switches routed calls, managed connections, and made the whole thing actually work. Without them, there was no network. And they were being built, right there in Kolkata, by Webel Telematik in partnership with Siemens. The factory employed local engineers and technicians, many trained specifically for this kind of high-tech manufacturing. It was not just about importing knowledge — it was about embedding it. The West Bengal government provided the land, the clearances, the political will, and the industrial support to make sure this happened before anywhere else in India.
In 1994, Jyoti Basu met personally with the leadership of Modi Telstra, the service provider tasked with launching India's first mobile network. He made one thing very clear: the first call in India had to be made from Kolkata. Not Delhi. Not Bombay. Kolkata. And the government backed that ambition with action. Through WEBEL and Webel Telematik, they ensured the infrastructure was ready. The Siemens factory in Salt Lake had already been producing the digital switches needed to make the network function. By the time other cities were still negotiating contracts, Bengal had the kit on the ground.
The infrastructure built by Webel Telematik and Siemens in the 1990s became the template for mobile networks across the country. The West Bengal government, acting through WEBEL, had not only facilitated the partnership but had also ensured that the manufacturing capacity was rooted in local expertise. The Salt Lake factory was more than a production facility — it was a statement of intent. It demonstrated that India, and specifically Bengal, could participate in global telecommunications not just as a consumer, but as a manufacturer and innovator. The EWSD systems produced there formed the technical backbone of the early mobile network, enabling the historic first call and countless millions that followed.
What started as a luxury — calls cost nearly ₹16 a minute back then — is now something over a billion Indians use every day without a second thought. And it all began with a state government that decided not to wait for someone else to build the future, but to build it themselves — in a factory in Salt Lake that barely gets mentioned in the history books.
There is an old saying: "Bengal leads today what India follows tomorrow." In the case of mobile phones, it was not just a saying. It was exactly what happened. The vision of the West Bengal government, the technical expertise of Siemens, and the determination of Webel Telematik combined to create something genuinely historic. Footage exists of that first call. Jyoti Basu, phone in hand, connected to Delhi — the result of months of planning, a German partnership, and a factory in Sector V that built the switches that made it all possible.