NEW DELHI : Being in India is more critical than ever for Ericsson, Nunzio Mirtillo, head of South East Asia, Oceania and India, said in an interview. The South Asian market, among the top five regions globally for the company, is expected to not only solidify its position but also move at a faster pace, by at least three to four times, in the adoption of 5G compared to other global markets such as the US and Japan.

Mirtillo said Ericsson will scale up investments to manufacture network gear in India to meet local demand, ramp up supply chains, and increase headcount and research and development. He said captive private networks on 5G will drive additional revenue, and the company will create a separate unit to explore deals in India. Edited excerpts:

How is the Indian market looking now with operators speeding up 5G rollouts, perhaps at a faster pace than global peers?

The Indianpopulation has proven to be very willing to use technology and super willing to innovate, which is an environment perfect for 4G or 5G. For example, in India, consumers are more willing to go from 4G to 5G than in other countries where 5G has been launched, two or three times more. With this kind of environment and facts, the operators will accelerate 5G even more because they understand that people appreciate the quality.

At Ericsson, we have always been looking at India as a big market. Earlier, it was a scale market where you needed to be competitive cost-wise with reliable products, and then you could get access to big volumes of India. That was the case till a few years back with GSM and 3G. But nowadays, thats not good enough.

What has changed?

Now, you also need the best possible technology because demand in India is second to none. So, you cant go halfway. India is among the top markets, not only in revenue but in importance, which will require Ericsson to continue to excel in technology and cost.

So, by being successful in India, obviously, we will get revenue from India, and we will get the volumes in India. It will also make us successful as a company beyond India. And that is exactly why for us, its so important more than ever.

What are the distinct factors that make India an attractive market for 5G?

At Ericsson, we have always considered India a big market. For 5G, I dont think its late; its perfect and right on time because now technology is mature, its optimized, and its great cost per quality. We have 22,000 people working for Ericsson in India, where a few thousand are working for India, and the others are working in India for the rest of the world. So, the biggest community of 5G competence maybe is in India, working already for 5G networks. Second, it is a successful country. It is set for innovation. The government is driving an agenda that is music for our ears, as we say internally. Its just the right place to be in.

So, will you be scaling up investments here?

Absolutely, yes. We will continue to scale with our partners. One area is our supply chain and manufacturing, we are doing it with our partnerJabil, and we will continue to scale to ensure that we can serve the demand coming from India. We will continue to invest in local capability in the global centre for R&D.

Whats the impact of component shortage for gear markers like yourself?

That has not affected us because I think we have been planning well. It has never been an easy job to make sure that the supply chain is geared up in the past few years, and it will be the same going forward as well.

How big can the 5G private captive network market be in India for Ericsson?

There will be a great growth market for private networks because 5G is now a technology that is reliable, safe with superb capacity and latency better than good enough to replace all physical problems.

So, we see a big opportunity for many companies in the industry to go mobile rather than keep their own fixed infrastructure. We have created a new unit, called Business Area Enterprise Wireless Solutions, which takes care of the B2B and B2B2C business when it comes to private network solutions which are based on our acquisition of Cradlepoint, which provides B2B, Plug and Play cloud-based solutions to provide mobile access to SMEs or big companies like RedHat or others. It extends to all (markets), and were exploring India too.

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Being in India more critical than ever: Ericssons Mirtillo | Mint - Mint