Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) today announced it is scaling up the production capacity and operations with its partner Jabil in Pune to meet the needs of 5G network deployments in India. Ericsson, the first telecom vendor to set up manufacturing in India in 1994, manufactures equipment with Jabil that includes 4G and 5G radios, RAN Compute as well as microwave products.

Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Market Area Southeast Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson, says: “As 5G gets introduced in India, we are ramping up production of our 5G telecom equipment in Pune in a phased manner, to support the network deployments of Indian telecom service providers. The production in India is part of our global production footprint with a presence across continents. This footprint has enabled us to secure a global, flexible, and resilient supply chain to respond quickly to market and customer needs, whereby India also benefits.”

The production ramp-up will expand operations with high-technology production and will also generate employment for around 2,000 people in Pune, India.  To increase flexibility and speed in bringing products into the market, Ericsson India is also establishing a technology center. This will focus on new product introduction and production engineering to secure high-quality standards, testing/integration, and supply preparations on early-phase products, as well as operational support to ensure efficient 5G development and deployment in India.

Ericsson’s ultra-lightweight, Massive MIMO antenna integrated radios AIR 3219 and AIR 3268 will be produced there initially to support the 5G deployments. Ericsson will also work with local ecosystem partners to support its 5G production in India.

Commercial launches of 5G networks are underway in the country with deployments having commenced following the spectrum auctions in July. Bharti Airtel (Airtel) and Jio, India's premier communications solutions providers, have selected Ericsson as their partner to deploy 5G networks in the country.

“With our experience of deploying 5G in more than 50 countries, we look forward to the opportunity of helping our partners to seamlessly transition to 5G,” says Nunzio Mirtillo. “5G is a platform for innovation that will transform India by digitalising industries and providing new and immersive experiences to consumers. 5G can play an important role in achieving India’s digital inclusion goals and enable the country to realise its ‘Digital India’ vision.”

With increasing availability and affordability of 5G smartphones, along with rapid adoption of smartphones in urban and rural areas, 5G subscriptions in the India region are expected to rapidly increase to reach around 690 million by the end of 2028, according to the Ericsson Mobility Report, November 2022 edition.