NEW DELHI: Ericsson said that it is scaling up its manufacturing facility in Pune to meet 5G equipment demand coming from its Indian telecom operator partners. The Swedish telecom gear maker works with Jabil in Pune to manufacture 4G and 5G equipment for domestic and export-related requirements.
“We are scaling up production capability in Pune with Jabil. We would like to hit the target of meeting close to 100% requirement in India from India. We have done that for 4G and we will ensure that we hit the milestone for 5G as well,” Nitin Bansal, Head of Ericsson India and Head of Network Solutions, South- east Asia, Oceania and India told ET.
Ericsson recently bagged 5G network deals with both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel and is already helping them deploy the network. Both telcos will launch their respective 5G services ahead of the Diwali festival.
Ericsson said that it is helping its telecom operator partners to ensure seamless 4G to 5G migration in India using its global deployment experience and the local manufacturing unit.
On Vodafone Idea’s 5G strategy and payment issues, Bansal said that 5G rollout timelines are work in program and the company continues to work with all telcos.
ET recently reported that Vi has been facing challenges in finalising contracts for 5G network gear supplies and tower tenancies, with vendors pushing the cash-strapped operator to clear their 4G-related dues and fork out advance payments for fresh contracts. In addition to dues to the tower companies, Vi reportedly owed over Rs 5,000 crore to network vendors and other suppliers at the end of the June quarter. These numbers are likely to have risen further in the succeeding three months.