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5G spread in India to be among fastest in the world: Ericsson's Mirtillo

Both Airtel and Jio have been testing O-RAN technology for 5G services

Nunzio Mirtillo
Nunzio Mirtillo, senior vice-president and head of market area Southeast Asia, Oceania & India, Ericsson
Surajeet Das GuptaAneesh Phadnis New Delhi
3 min read Last Updated : Oct 03 2022 | 10:47 PM IST
Global telecom gearmaker Ericsson believes that India will see one of the fastest 5G adoptions in the world. It also allayed concern raised by telecom operators in the country about supply-chain constraints, especially due to the sudden closure of component factories in China, which can impact India’s aggressive plans for the 5G roll-out.

Nunzio Mirtillo, senior vice-president and head of market area Southeast Asia, Oceania & India, Ericsson, who was here for the India Mobile Congress, said: “5G adoption in India will be faster than anywhere else in the world. The willingness of Indians to adopt new technology is second to none. It happened with 4G, which led to huge increases in mobile and net-banking transactions...”

For Ericsson, India is among the top five markets in the world in terms of revenue. On concern about the supply of equipment, Mirtillo said: “We have prepared ourselves to manage the volumes that are required for India. In India, through our contract manufacturing partner Jabil, we have manufacturing capability, which we will scale up in order to cope with the demand.” 

Mirtillo said Ericsson had enough capability to cater to the bulk of demand for 5G network gear from its Indian manufacturing centre. Of course, some components still have to be imported, he said. “Volumes from the Indian market are much higher than other countries in the region. All the products we need for the roll-out are produced in India. We have modularity; we can scale up and scale down based on our needs,” he said.

The Ericsson assurance comes at a time when Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel (which have awarded contracts to Ericsson in various circles) have announced aggressive plans for rolling out 5G services. Jio is aiming to reach every town, taluka and district in India with 5G services by the end of next year; Airtel is targeting March 2024.

Mirtillo did not see any scope of O-RAN (open radio access network) technology -- once touted as the disruptive technology to launch 5G -- being used by operators in the first phase.

Explaining the reason, Mirtillo said: “O-RAN is part of our R&D road map. As far as India is concerned, O-RAN will not be part of the first phase of the 5G roll-out.”

He pointed out that in India, mobile usage per person is expected to go up dramatically from the current 20 GB, and the number of 5G users will also climb. With such demand and focus on customer experience, operators need to be cost-competitive.

“There is no space for O-RAN in the short term. India is the most challenging for the 5G roll-out because of its scale. Operators need the best state-of-the-art technology in the world, so that they do not risk their business,” he pointed out.

O-RAN technology came as a challenge for traditional global telecom gear makers like Ericsson, Nokia, and Huawei which enables operators to build 5G networks based on open platforms and by buying hardware and software separately from various vendors and integrating them together. Such a move, proponents of O-RAN say, gives them more bargaining power and cost savings.

However, it challenges the traditional model of telecom gear companies, which offer proprietary platforms, where software and hardware come bundled together. Both Airtel and Jio have been testing O-RAN technology for 5G services.

Topics :5G5G in IndiaEricssonTelecom industrytelecom operatorsReliance JioAirtel

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