Ericsson India analyst briefing focuses on next phase of 5G growth
Ericsson brought together industry analysts in New Delhi on October 6 to discuss how India’s service providers can build on the country’s rapid 5G rollout, with fixed wireless access (FWA), differentiated connectivity and demand from AI applications among the priorities.
Held ahead of India Mobile Congress, the annual briefing focused on opportunities for further growth in one of Ericsson’s key strategic markets.
“We are seeing 5G emerge as the digital platform that is underpinning India’s next phase of economic growth, innovation, and industrial competitiveness,” said Andrés Vicente, Head of Ericsson South East Asia, Oceania & India. “As AI places new demands on networks, 5G Standalone will be essential to building on that progress. Our investments in local manufacturing, R&D and talent support our customers through this next phase.”
5G Standalone (5G SA) has reached commercial critical mass in the country with more than 65 percent of all 5G subscriptions in India estimated to be 5G SA .And this is important because it unlocks the full capabilities of 5G, enabling network programmability, differentiated connectivity experiences and mission-critical applications.
India has carried out the fastest 5G rollouts globally with more than 562,000 base stations deployed as of June 30, 2026, ensuring that 5G services are accessible in 99.9 percent of the districts nationwide. At the end of 2025, 5G subscriptions stood at 430 million, representing 35 percent of all mobile subscriptions.
At the event, Ericsson also outlined its local investment and activities as India advances localization through Make in India. The company is expanding antenna manufacturing with VVDN Technologies and growing research and development across Bengaluru, Gurgaon and Chennai. Ericsson has 22,000 employees in India, more than it has in any other country, and runs the Ericsson Innovation Challenge to support talent development.
India is also a leading nation in Fixed Wireless Access globally – with 13.45 million 5G FWA users.
“India's 5G story is entering a new chapter,” said Vicente. “The focus is no longer solely on network rollout and coverage. It is increasingly about monetization, enterprise transformation, and creating economic value.”
The discussion on AI addressed both its use in network operations and the demands that AI applications will place on connectivity. Ericsson CTO Erik Ekudden highlighted India’s world-fastest rollout and talked about how AI is moving beyond data centers into real time applications such as AI/AR wearables, humanoids and drones.
5G is already enabling new use cases, Ekudden said, and an intelligent fabric will both make networks smarter and provide the advanced connectivity with hosted inference that distributed AI requires – giving India an opportunity to be a leader in both AI and 5G.
Other sessions examined mission critical communications, enterprise, AI for networks, network APIs and autonomous networks, among other topics.