Ericsson said initial shipments will target markets including Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia
Swedish vendor Ericsson said it will start exporting 5G-ready telecom equipment from its manufacturing plant in Pune, India, local press reported.
According to the reports, Ericsson will ship 5G equipment to markets in Southeast Asia including Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.
The vendor said that the initial shipments consists of Ericsson’s 5G-ready radio base stations and microwave equipment for 2G, 3G and 4G technologies.
Ericsson also aims to start exporting 5G-ready gear to additional markets in Southeast Asia.
“Our state-of-the-art facility will continue to cater to the domestic market even as we commence exports to other markets in Southeast Asia,” said Nunzio Mirtillo, head of Ericsson South East Asia, Oceania and India.
In 2016, Ericsson set up a manufacturing facility in Chakan, Pune, with an initial investment of $20 million, with the expectation of investing additional resources to increase capacity once the export volume picked up.
Ericsson, together with Indian carrier Reliance Jio Infocomm, recently unveiled jointly developed 5G use cases which were showcased over a live 5G network in Navi Mumbai and in Delhi. The demonstrations included 5G connected car and VR-enabled driving using 5G, Ericsson said in a statement.
“The use cases demonstrated at the event over the live 5G network in Navi Mumbai and in Delhi leveraged the gigabit speed and ultra-low latency capabilities of 5G to show key benefits such as the remote operation of machines (robotic arms, vehicles) and possibilities enabled through virtual reality (VR),” the statement said.
One of the demonstrations included the remote operation and control of a car that is connected over a live 5G network on 3.5 GHz band at the Indian Institute of Technology, in Delhi.
“Our goal behind developing use cases with our partners is to develop tangible concepts that can be taken forward and implemented by industry,” said Mirtillo. He added that the use cases could be applied in sectors such as mining, education, and healthcare.
In related news, Nokia also announced that its manufacturing facility in Chennai, in India, has started to make 5G New Radio (NR) based on the 3GPP 5G New Radio Release 15 standard. Nokia’s Chennai plant is already manufacturing 2G, 3G and 4G units. The plant serves Indian as well as global customers, shipping to over 100 countries.
Nokia may explore manufacturing of fixed networks products in India if it sees enough demand coming from Indian telecom operators, The Economic Times reported Federico Guillen, Nokia’s fixed networks president, as saying.
Nokia started manufacturing telecom network equipment in India in 2008.
