5G in India! Ericsson partners with BSNL to develop 5G services in the country

Ericsson has announced yesterday that it is teaming up with government-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for developing 5G in India. The company has signed a MoU with BSNL which will empower Ericsson’s 5G Center of Excellence in Delhi to work on various projects in India. The Ericsson’s project includes rural connectivity, connected healthcare, industrial automation, public safety, video surveillance, energy, and agriculture.

Ericsson has already started working on 5G technologies and earlier revealed live demonstration of speeds as high as 5.7 GBPS with an ultra-low latency of 3ms. In addition to BSNL, Ericsson is also working closely with other telecom operators as well to create a strong 5G ecosystem. To take 5G developments at a pace in the country, Ericsson has set up a Center of Excellence and Innovation Lab for 5G at the IIT Delhi, earlier this year.

Talking about the announcement, Nunzio Mirtillo, Ericsson India Head said “We are proud to partner with BSNL to work on use-cases and scenarios for application of 5G technology and how it will help realize the Digital India vision. Ericsson has been a key part of the telecom ecosystem in India for several decades, bringing voice and data services to millions of customers in the country. As networks evolve towards 5G, we have the products and solutions as well as the expertise to help operators evolve seamlessly from 4G to 5G”.

Anupam Shrivastava, CMD, BSNL, also said on the topic that “5G and IoT will enable new opportunities and create new ecosystems and through this association with Ericsson, we intend to take the lead in the development of these new technologies. We will test, learn and develop use cases that will help us meet the diverse needs of our customers in the future. 5G will also help create the backbone on which Digital India initiatives will be delivered”.