Views of Nitin Bansal: “India is emerging as the most digitalised nation in the world”

Ericsson has stepped up its research and development (R&D) and established academic collaborations with premier engineering institutions in the country, aimed at driving innovation and developing cutting-edge solutions. Recently, it showcased advanced 5G connectivity solutions and use cases at the Ericsson Imagine Live Roadshow. At this event, Nitin Bansal, managing director, Ericsson India, shared his views on the evolving 5G space and initiatives undertaken in India and globally. Edited excerpts…

The advent of 5G is opening up new opportunities for operators, both in the established mobile broadband business and through the exploration of new value pools. 5G is enhancing network capabilities for both consumers and enterprises. A year ago, we explored the use cases of 5G, but today, we are introducing the new concept of use places. Use places refer to the kind of services you can offer in a certain place, such as a shopping mall, city centre, enterprise or country. The use cases we have discussed in the past can all be collected and introduced in one place, making it a use place.

Ericsson has enabled 160 5G networks globally. Out of these, 32 are live 5G standalone (SA) networks and 62, which are currently non-standalone (NSA), are evolving towards standalone architecture. SA networks are expected to capitalise on and maximise 5G’s benefits. This is where we get the capabilities of slicing and service differentiation to capture the full potential of 5G.

SA networks introduce numerous enhanced functionalities for using 5G capabilities. Mobile broadband and fixed wireless access are the two primary use cases seen in India. However, we must evolve and explore what we can do to make them more relevant for the Indian market. Streaming, so far, has been doubly focused. The exploration of differentiated connectivity solutions for specific industries and network slices for enterprise and consumer applications will represent a significant shift in the evolution of the mobile broadband business in India. Looking ahead, the emergence of programmable networks and the exposure of network capabilities to application developers presents another exciting opportunity. This move has the potential to foster innovation at scale, allowing developers to leverage network capabilities through application programming interfaces (APIs) to create solutions for different segments.

“5G is enhancing network capabilities for both consumers and enterprises.”

If you are at a stadium watching a game, you might want to record a video and send it upstream. For this, you need very strong uplink capabilities. This is where APIs come into play, it requires opening up the network capabilities to external developers. They can then select one of the parameters, such as quality of service, speed or latency, to build applications on that.

Once you have the network capabilities, you can use them to the extreme, then the next focus is energy efficiency. Globally, we have seen 5G picking up very well, with approximately 1.6 billion 5G subscriptions today. There is 3.5 times more traffic being carried in the networks. Revenue towards subscribers has also increased by 4.6 per cent.

Fixed wireless access (FWA) was launched in India a couple of months ago, and the pick-up has been very good. Globally, there are currently 120 fixed wireless access networks in operation. Out of those, about 50 per cent are using 5G capabilities. We expect this to grow in the coming years. We expect about 330 million FWA subscriptions by 2029, with 85 per cent of these networks leveraging 5G technology.

In terms of consumers, for instance, a gamer would have a certain set of requirements, while those recording videos and using streaming services have a totally different set of requirements. With service differentiation, it becomes possible to cater to the unique requirements of both consumers and enterprises.

Programmable networks and open API are the next level. We demonstrated one use case with Singtel during last year’s Formula One racing. Here, we implemented end-to-end network slicing and we were able to enhance the viewing experience for attendees. This was one of the reasons why the number of IT subscriptions at Singtel increased by 28 per cent.

Belfast, north of Ireland, aims to be the smartest port. Here, we worked together with our operators to automate the port and integrate it with 5G technology. It resulted in 20 per cent cost savings compared to previous operations. Further, it led to a 50 per cent reduction in time spent on inspecting assets and a 56 per cent reduction in installation and maintenance costs for CCTVs, which were one of the main things needed in the port.

Another initiative was undertaken in Spain, in collaboration with Orange, Telefonica and Vodafone. We opened network APIs to enhance the gaming experience. This gave us the opportunity to control the end-to-end user experience and deliver a consistent, stable and superior gaming experience.

As a business partner, we significantly invest in R&D every year. Our focus is primarily on performance. How do we increase the performance? How do we enable more services to be delivered? How do we optimise the services? Historically, the networks were being used only for voice and some amount of data. Therefore, it was very easy to optimise the networks and ensure that the performance was good. Now, we need to ensure that subscribers have a positive experience regardless of how they use the network. We focus extensively on this in our R&D, both from a hardware and software capabilities point of view.

Last but not the least is sustainability. It is about optimising consumption and making sure that we radiate only when there is a need for it. We are very proud to be leading in this and will continue to do so in high performing programmable networks. Going forward, we will witness enhancements in standards for edge computing, slicing, network exposures and API. We will continue to work on energy and cost efficiency, 5G advanced and 6G. We will focus on developing more features and technology to optimise spectrum usage, which is a very critical asset for operators. This will deliver enhanced performance by increasing data-carrying capabilities and speeds.

Ericsson came to India in 1903, marking 121 years of operations in the country. We were the first ones to start manufacturing in the country in 1994. We now have R&D centres in Chennai, Bengaluru and Gurugram. We also have three global artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators. Out of these, one is in Bengaluru. Recently, we have also started working on 6G research and engagements in line with the government’s directives.

We have been closely following the priorities of the Indian government for a long time. We will continue to invest in India and make sure that we deliver what is expected from us. We signed a research collaboration with IIT Madras for responsible AI, which we believe is a foundation for 6G research. This year, we have forged research collaborations with IIT Kharagpur and the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. We are exploring opportunities to collaborate with academia in India to continue research on 5G advanced, 6G and beyond. Essentially, we are focusing on investing in the building blocks for new technologies, AI being one of them.

We have three Global AI Accelerators – one each in Canada, Stockholm and Bengaluru. We employ 100 data scientists at our Global AI Accelerator in Bengaluru.

India is emerging as the most digitalised nation in the world. We witnessed the fastest roll-out of 5G networks in the past two years, and today, we carry the maximum 5G traffic in India. We must maintain this leadership due to the specific requirements posed by the country’s large population and high data volumes. Therefore, we believe that engaging in research in India – such as for 6G, and AI – will not only benefit the country but also help the overall industry achieve new goals.

“A year ago, we explored use cases of 5G, but today, we are introducing the new concept of use places.”