India has established itself as one of the top three nations in the world with the largest 5G installed base, according to a recent statement from Nokia.
The President and CEO, Pekka Lundmark, made the announcement during the telecommunication company’s 6G research lab inauguration in Bengaluru on Thursday. Despite a noticeable decline in telecoms equipment shipment, India’s 5G rollout has worked to offset Ericsson and Nokia’s reduction in business.
Nokia has noted growth in sales of 333% in India, with Rs 9,500 crore in the June quarter of this year. Similarly, Ericsson has marked a 74% growth in net sales in the same period in South East Asia, Oceania and India to the sum of Rs 10,700 crore. Around 90% of the firm’s business comes from India alone.
A joint investment between Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel is set to contribute Rs 75,000 crore to improve Nokia’s existing networks, a report by JM Financial has revealed. The project will lead the way in increasing technology speed and innovative use cases, with 6G technology that will seek to address the future requirements of the industry.
Nokia’s 6G lab will provide a platform for collaboration between industry stakeholders and support the testing of new innovative technologies and solutions while establishing potential for commercialization.
The setup will support the integration of the virtual and physical worlds and will include ‘Network as a Sensor’ technology; technology that will allow sensors to detect objects, people and movement without the demand for onboard sensors. The wireless network will see full integration of these sensors, which will operate in tandem with communication services.
Fundamentally, Nokia’s experts aim to provide support for India’s ambitions in 6G global technology standard improvements, building research collaborations with institutes such as IISc and IITs to scale the nation’s 6G initiatives.
UN body ITU’s Study Group held a meeting last month in Geneva, which confirmed India’s goal to allow nationwide 6G coverage, which is anticipated to reduce the technology’s deployment costs.