Ericsson sees huge potential for 5G enterprise applications and mission-critical use cases in India: MD Nitin Bansal

New Delhi [India], October 10 (ANI): Apart from mobile broadband, 5G in India has a big market for enterprise applications and mission-critical services, which is definitely an area that needs to be explored and developed further, said Nitin Bansal, Managing Director of Ericsson India and Head-Networks for South East Asia, Oceania, and India.
In an exclusive conversation with ANI on the sidelines of the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2025, Bansal spoke about Ericsson's contribution to India's 5G rollout and the company's strong focus on local manufacturing, research, and innovation.
Talking about the current use of 5G in India, Bansal noted that it is primarily being used for mobile broadband and fixed wireless access.
However, he believes that the next phase of growth will come from enterprise applications and mission-critical solutions.
"Going forward, based on the use cases we are showing here and have shown in the past years, there is a big market in India for enterprise applications and mission-critical, and that's definitely an area we should all explore and contribute together," he added.
He further said, "We have worked with telecom service providers under the guidance of the government to expedite the 5G rollouts. Products needed for India's 5G rollout have been developed, are being produced in India, and are being deployed".
Highlighting Ericsson's efforts to strengthen the domestic ecosystem, he added, "We recently announced a partnership for antenna manufacturing. There are two categories: one is antenna manufacturing, and the other is design-led manufacturing. Both of those antennas are for domestic consumption and for export purposes. This is definitely part of the Make in India initiative."
Bansal also mentioned Ericsson's growing collaboration with Indian academic institutions to drive research in next-generation technologies.
"We have also signed up with Academia. We have partnerships with IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, and ISI Kolkata, where we are conducting cutting-edge research in 6G and artificial intelligence," he said.
When asked about the role of AI and network optimization, Bansal said, "Oh yes, I mean network optimization and AI. From an Ericsson point of view, we divide AI into what is built into the software itself. What is built into the software is optimization, which is what you spoke about in addition to efficiency. When I say efficiency, it's about power saving." (ANI)