BSNL partners with Ericsson to create 5G roadmap in India

State-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has signed MOU with Telecom gear maker Ericsson to work together on developing new 5G use cases in areas like agriculture and education, especially for rural areas.

The partnership will help BSNL to utilize Ericsson's 5G Center of Excellence established at IIT Delhi to work on evaluating benefits of 5G technology in areas like rural connectivity, connected healthcare, industrial automation, public safety, video surveillance, energy, and agriculture amongst others.

As part of the agreement, the two parties will also collaborate for knowledge sharing on 5G technology concepts and industry trends as well as work on 3GPP standardization progress.

Anupam Shrivastava, CMD BSNL said, "5G and IoT will enable new opportunities and create new ecosystems and through this association with Ericsson, we intend to take the lead in the development of these new technologies. We will test, learn and develop use cases that will help us meet the diverse needs of our customers in the future. 5G will also help create the backbone on which Digital India initiatives will be delivered." This announcement reinforces BSNL's commitment to developing the 5G ecosystem to support the vision of digital India by PM Narender Modi.

Meanwhile, the telco said that it is working closely with OEMs & technology partners to showcase strong 5G ecosystem to enable innovation for new use cases, and business models.

"As networks evolve towards 5G, we have the products and solutions as well as the expertise to help operators evolve seamlessly from 4G to 5G," Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Market Area, South East Asia, Oceania, and India at Ericsson said.

For those who are not aware, Ericsson had set up a Center of Excellence and Innovation Lab for 5G at the IIT Delhi.

This Center of Excellence has been established to fast-track 5G deployments in the country by bringing together telecom ecosystems, leading public sector units providing a comprehensive range of telecom services in India academia, industry, and start-ups.