Ericsson says in talks with Indian telcos on 5G partnerships

Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson said that it is in talks with Indian telecom operators for the deployment of massive MIMO and 5G plug-ins. The vendor is also exploring 5G tie-ups with Indian telcos, having already inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bharti Airtel.

The company already has 36 such MoUs with global telecom operators. Under these agreements, Ericsson is trialing 5G technology and other solutions across verticals with these telcos.

Ericsson had earlier said that timely deployment plan for 3.3-3.6GHz band is crucial for the 5G network rollout in India. The band has already been identified as the primary band for the introduction of 5G services in the country before 2020.

Ericsson India Country Manager Nitin Bansal said, ” Besides telcos, startups, enterprises and academic has to come together to develop 5G use cases in India.”

Besides massive mimo, telcos are already in discussions with Ericsson around lean carrier and cloud RAN, which are 5G technologies. It is in talks with telcos around Internet of Things as well.

India plans to roll out 5G services for consumers by 2020 and to achieve that objective, the government has this week set up a high-level forum that will evaluate and approve roadmaps and action plans to bring in the latest technology in the country.

Bansal said that Ericsson through its partnership with IIT-Delhi is evaluating 5G use cases around Healthcare, automotive and education verticals.