Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson is investing in India under the production-linked incentives or PLI scheme for telecom in order to enhance its production capabilities and to prepare for deliveries to its Indian customers for 4G as well as 5G requirements.

“We making the technology available relevant for India and making sure that we are covering all the requirements that will come in India and also preparing ourselves for production and delivery out of India,” Nitin Bansal, Head of Ericsson India and Head of Network Solutions for South east Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson told reporters.

Bansal said that Ericsson’s production facility in Pune through its contract manufacturing partner, Jabil, is scalable and expandable as per the requirements of local and global markets. “We need to build the capabilities.”

He said that Indian telecom operators are also making investments to be prepared for the 5G technology and are preparing for spectrum auctions.

“There will be investments from from other enterprises who want to adopt 5G services and also from from those who are developing. The use cases across consumer and enterprise. So yes, everyone is investing in their own area of expertise,” Bansal added. “The industry and technology are continuously evolving and we all need to invest to to keep pace with it.

Bansal said that ongoing 5G field trials show the readiness of Indian telecom industry for the high-speed internet technology. “So, once the spectrum auction takes place, deployments can start,” he said.

The Indian government expected to conduct 5G spectrum auction in April-May period of 2022.