Swedish telecom equipment manufacturer Ericsson is considering the potential for exporting telecom network equipment from India, according to a senior company executive. “India rolled out 5G on a massive scale last year, and we produced everything from our Indian manufacturing facility. We scaled up our capabilities to meet the requirements of the Indian market. Going forward, we are evaluating the possibilities to export,” Nitin Bansal, Head of Ericsson India told.
Bansal mentioned that more details would be shared once the plans are finalized. Under the “Make in India” program, Ericsson previously exported 5G-ready telecom equipment from its manufacturing facility in Pune, Maharashtra, to Southeast Asian markets.
Thanks to 5G rollouts by India’s leading telecom operators, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, Ericsson saw a substantial increase in its market share last year. Together, these operators had almost 175 million 5G connections by the end of March 2024. Although 5G is still in its early stages, with significant adoption by industries expected to take several years, Indian telecom operators are still working to effectively monetize 5G services. Despite promising developments in Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and potential applications in healthcare, education, and manufacturing, the industry has yet to fully unlock 5G’s potential.
Ericsson also announced the launch of a new software toolkit to enhance 5G standalone network capabilities and enable premium services with differentiated connectivity. “The advent of 5G is opening up new opportunities for operators, both in the established mobile broadband business and through the exploration of new value pools. Our innovative software toolkit will enable telcos to unlock advanced 5G applications through differentiated connectivity,” Bansal said.
Exploring differentiated connectivity solutions for specific industries and network slices for enterprise and consumer applications will represent a significant shift in the evolution of the mobile broadband business in India. As we progress, programmable networks and exposing network capabilities to application developers will provide further opportunities, he added.
