Ericsson to ramp up production via Jabil in India to serve 5G deployments, generate employment for 2,000 people

Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson Monday said it is ramping up production capacity and operations with its contract manufacturing partner Jabil, in India, to meet the needs of 5G network deployments in the country.

Ericsson India will also establish a technology center in Pune, and together with the expansion of production capacity, it will generate employment opportunities for up to 2,000 people in Pune, India, according to a statement by the company.

“As 5G gets introduced in India, we are ramping up production of our 5G telecom equipment in Pune in a phased manner, to support the network deployments of Indian telecom service providers,” said Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Market Area Southeast Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson.

“The production in India is part of our global production footprint with a presence across continents. This footprint has enabled us to secure a global, flexible, and resilient supply chain to respond quickly to market and customer needs, whereby India also benefits,” Mirtillo added.

Ericsson will initially produce its lightweight Massive MIMO antenna integrated radios AIR 3219 and AIR 3268 to support the 5G deployments. Ericsson will also work with local ecosystem partners to support its 5G production in India.

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, India’s top two telecom operators, have selected Ericsson as their partner to deploy 5G networks.

The technology center, Ericsson added, will reduce time-to-market and enable the company to work on new products and production engineering to ensure “high-quality standards, testing/integration, and supply preparations on early-phase products, as well as operational support” for 5G development and deployment in India.

“With our experience of deploying 5G in more than 50 countries, we look forward to the opportunity of helping our partners to seamlessly transition to 5G,” said Mirtillo. “5G can play an important role in achieving India’s digital inclusion goals and enable the country to realize its ‘Digital India’ vision.”

With the increasing availability and affordability of 5G smartphones, along with rapid adoption of smartphones in urban and rural areas, 5G subscriptions in the India region are expected to rapidly increase to reach around 690 million by the end of 2028, according to the Ericsson’s November 2022 edition of Mobility Report.