ETTelecom interviews: Nokia’s chief strategy and technology officer on OpenRAN, 5Gi, Bell Labs and 5G in India

The time to roll out 5G services in India is “here, and now”, said Nishant Batra, global chief strategy and technology officer at Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia. In an interview to ET’s Danish Khan and Romit Guha, Batra said the ongoing 5G trials would be a waste if they are only to test the speed and latency of the networks, rather than developing use cases for enterprises. He also said the local 5G standards, as being pushed by India, are unlikely to be successful and that the country must adopt a standard which is being used globally, else cost of connectivity will increase. Edited excerpts:

How is the India market shaping up for Nokia? The number of clients has reduced sharply.