As India geared up for the launch of 5G services, telecom equipment manufacturers are bullish on their prospects in India. The New Indian Express caught up with Vinish Bawa, head, emerging business and enterprise, Nokia India, to discuss more on 5G deployment in India
As India is on the verge of rolling out 5G services, how is Nokia geared up to contribute to India’s 5G deployment?
Nokia is one of the market leaders in the 4G and 5G space. We provide a complete solution from wireless to transporting network. For 5G, we are working with both the service provider -- to get their telecom network up and running on 5G—as well as with industries and enterprises. 5G is not only about consumers, it’s also about enterprises. So, we are working with various enterprises across all sectors – power, manufacturing, mining, ports, etc.
Who are the telecom operators Nokia is working with right now in India?
In India, we are working with all three telecom operators -- Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. However, Vodafone Idea has not finalized its vendors for 5G yet, but we are a big partner for them for their 4G network.
Which are the major enterprises Nokia is providing its services?
We are working with various enterprises at different verticals. For transportation verticals, we are working with Indian railways, and we provide GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) infrastructure for India Railway. In the power sector, we work with the power grids in India. We are also working with the Indian government for the broadband projects.
Given the restrictions on Chinese vendors, do you think it will impact the speed of 5G rollout in the country?
No. While we have some issues in terms of the supply chain, there is not much of a problem now. We have a factory in India, where we manufacture 5G equipment. We are also moving more manufacturing to India. So, we are fully geared up to supply and deploy all the telecom technology to the Indian companies.
Is there extra pressure on telecom equipment manufacturers as Chinese players are not in the race?
Nokia has been a market leader in this space. And we are all competing with them earlier too. So, there is no extra pressure, I would say, we are serving the needs of the telecom companies and we like to do that because that is our business.
Telecom operators are claiming to roll out 5G services in the entire country by next year. Being an equipment manufacturer, how do you see their claim?
There are no issues as such, and we are confident they will be able to roll out the 5G service in the entire country by next year. We are working on the project planning and making sure that the deployment needs are taken care of. As per needs, we will try to do whatever best we can.