Ericsson has a leading market share for 5G in India and is focussed on deepening its local manufacturing to cater to the local market for now and global markets over time.
In this interview, Borje Ekholm, talks about building an ecosystem in India around sub-components and other types of sub-suppliers to support cost-efficient exports. Edited excerpts:
What and how important was India's contribution to the overall Q2 results?
The Indian market is strategic for us. You can clearly see now in our operating performance...for the simple reason that India has been on a trajectory to digitalise the country for several years. That's why we decided a few years back to invest more strategically in India, including establishing local manufacturing, having a strong R&D presence, etc. We can now have our products deployed and scaled in India, which really helps the company globally. We now have the leading 5G market share in India.
Can you elaborate on Ericsson's India manufacturing plans?
We will see exports from our production in India over time. Today, we're serving the Indian market as it is a fast-growth market. But over time, we will build an ecosystem in India around sub-components and other types of sub-suppliers we need. So, we will have a stronger ecosystem that will allow us also to export cost-efficiently from India
Are Indian telcos discussing 5G monetisation with Ericsson?
There will be many different ways to monetise 5G. One, which is clearly fixed wireless access (FWA). But we also see mission-critical networks where you can sell a network slice. We invest heavily in network APIs where you can use the features of the network. For example, you can buy guaranteed network capacity or performance, speed or latency, or mobile-edge compute. All these network-driven features will be sold through a next-generation CPaaS solution. And that's where we are investing in developing.
For full interview, go to www.economictimes.com