General
Network vendor Ericsson has bolstered its presence in India after opening a Radio Access Network (RAN) Software Research & Development (R&D) unit in Bengaluru.
Ericsson’s new R&D unit will focus on developing 5G and 5G Advanced features for Ericsson’s 5G baseband initially, with work set to be carried out in close collaboration with the vendor’s global RAN software teams.
Ericsson noted Bengaluru’s location is an ideal spot to launch the R&D center, due to the presence of major global telecom companies.
The company also has R&D sites in Chennai and Gurugram, which span critical telecom domains including Transport, Packet Core, OSS, BSS, Cloud, and advanced AI technologies.
“Setting up the R&D Center in India for RAN software development represents a significant step forward towards strengthening our R&D operations in India,” said Nitin Bansal, managing director, Ericsson India and head of network solutions, market area South East Asia, Oceania and India.
“Even as we leverage Indian software talent, we are also contributing to building the knowledge base and the telecom eco-system in the country.”
It’s the first time Ericsson will develop RAN software in India, adds David Bjore, head of RAN software & compute platforms at Ericsson.
Ericsson confirmed it will also work with car manufacturer Volvo and Indian telco Bharti Airtel to integrate XR and Digital Twin technologies at Volvo’s Bengaluru R&D Center.
It builds on Ericsson’s partnership in the country, after it signed an agreement with the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, aimed at researching AI and Edge computing. The partnership will see the vendor and IIT Madras advance AI research for 6G networks.
Last year, Ericsson signed 5G contracts with Airtel and Vodafone Idea.