India key market, has seen fastest scale-up of 5G: Ericsson CEO

NEW DELHI: Swedish telecom infra giant

Ericsson

said on Saturday India is one of the most important countries for the company globally, which has prompted it to not only strengthen work in 5G technologies but also carry out research in AI and 6G.
Speaking at the ET Now Global Business Summit through video conferencing, Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm said India has seen the fastest scale-up of 5G globally, which has also fuelled internet consumption by the users.
"India is one of the most important markets for us globally. We have been here for 120 years, and been part of the transition from 2G to 5G. Today, we have 20,000 colleagues in this country."
There are as many as 270 million 5G subscribers in India today, Ekholm said, adding rapid digitalisation has contributed to fuelling economic growth.

"If you look at the

Digital India programme

, it has been built around connectivity. 4G played a big role there, and now it is migrating to 5G. India has been able to digitise rapidly, and we see a very exciting future here."
Ekholm said as networks become faster and migrate to next-generation technologies, there will be more use cases in areas such as healthcare, enterprise, and mission critical applications. Ekholm said that as 5G takes centre-stage across the economy, the networks will cater multiple use cases.