Earlier this year, Ericsson had set up a Center of Excellence and Innovation Lab for 5G at the IIT Delhi and also, it was the first company to bring a live demonstration of 5G technology to India showcasing speeds of 5.7 GBPS and ultra-low latency of less than 3 milliseconds. Now, Ericsson announced that it has signed an MoU with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to bring 5G services to India. Both will work together on developing new 5G use cases, knowledge sharing on 5G technology concepts, industry and innovation trends including 3GPP standardization progress.
Commenting on the partnership, Shri Anupam Shrivastava, CMD BSNL said, “5G and IoT will enable new opportunities and create new ecosystems and through this association with Ericsson, we intend to take the lead in the development of these new technologies. We will test, learn and develop use cases that will help us meet the diverse needs of our customers in the future. 5G will also help create the backbone on which Digital India initiatives will be delivered.”
The partnership will leverage Ericsson’s 5G Center of Excellence at IIT Delhi to work on evaluating benefits of 5G technology in areas like rural connectivity, connected healthcare, industrial automation, public safety, video surveillance, energy, and agriculture amongst others. As per the report from Ericsson, 5G enabled digitization revenue potential in India will be US $27.3 billion by 2026. The Indian operators can generate additional revenue of US$ 13 Billion or half of the stated potential if they take up roles beyond being Connectivity and infrastructure providers to become service enablers and service creators.
Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Market Area, South East Asia, Oceania, and India at Ericsson said, “We are proud to partner with BSNL to work on use-cases and scenarios for application of 5G technology and how it will help realize the Digital India vision. Ericsson has been a key part of the telecom ecosystem in India for several decades, bringing voice and data services to millions of customers in the country. As networks evolve towards 5G, we have the products and solutions as well as the expertise to help operators evolve seamlessly from 4G to 5G.”