Ericsson to expand R&D base in India, focuses on AI, 6G development

India is a key market for Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson, and the firm plans to expand its research and development (R&D) base in the country, a company executive said on Wednesday.

Andres Vicente, Head of Southeast Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson, speaking on the sidelines of India Mobile Congress 2024, said the company is stepping up the work on AI, Gen AI, and Network APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) at its R&D centres in India.

"India is one of the key markets for Ericsson across the world, and we feel really proud of what we have achieved so far. We have been manufacturing in India since 1994," he said.

The combination of high-performance, programmable networks and network APIs, along with a strong community of developers, will lead to significant growth and innovation. This presents a major opportunity for India, given its active developer and startup scene, he said.

"We're going to invest more in research and development around 6G, network APIs, and artificial intelligence," Vicente said.

The R&D teams will focus on creating programmable/API capabilities to enable advanced use cases such as fraud detection, device management, and security, as well as more straightforward and secure network interfaces, a company statement said.

Ericsson currently has R&D sites in Chennai, Bengaluru and Gurugram that work across telecom domains spanning Transport, Packet Core, OSS, BSS, Cloud and advanced AI technologies.

"India is one of the front runners on 5G technology. And now is the moment of 5G adoption. India is second to none in infrastructure development in 5G. In only 22 months, India has been able to roll out almost half a million base stations providing more than 90% coverage within the country. This has moved India from position number 86 for network performance to position 16," Vicente added.

Ericsson has, in the past announced partnerships with Bharti Airtel and Jio for their 5G rollout. Most recently, the company announced a 4G and 5G RAN (Radio Access Network) contract with Vi (Vodafone-Idea).