BENGALURU: Telecom gear maker Ericsson is enhancing its local manufacturing capacities to meet India’s telecom operators’ demand for 5G equipment. The Sweden-based company, while releasing a study on 5G in India, said the company is scaling its production capability in Pune with Jabil.
“Our strategy is that we should build in India for India, that does need scaling up and we are scaling up our production capabilities with our partner Jabil in Pune,” said Nitin Bansal, head of Ericsson India and Head of Network Solutions, South- east Asia, Oceania and India.
The company said it has done that for 4G and will ensure that it hits the milestone for 5G as well. Meanwhile, the company in its study noted that consumer 5G readiness is high in India. It said the tendency to upgrade to 5G in urban India is two times higher than their counterparts in markets like the UK and the US where 5G has already been launched. In fact, over the past two years, India has witnessed a three times increase in smartphone users who own a 5G handset.
The study reveals that 100 million+ users with 5G- ready smartphones wish to upgrade to a 5G subscription in 2023 while more than half of them are open to upgrading to a higher data tier plan in the next 12 months. “5G network superiority could emerge as a driver for consumer loyalty with 59% of smartphone users intending to upgrade to 5G in the first 12 months,” said the company.