Ericsson is hungry for more in India

Ericsson in India now has the largest number of employees making it the largest operations for the telecom equipment maker in the world.

With 18,000 employees spread across manufacturing, research & development, global network operating centre and sales operations, Ericsson India is a reflection of the company’s set up at its headquarters in Sweden.

Despite a stagnant telecom market, in the first quarter of 2014, the company’s revenues in the country increased by six per cent to reach Swedish Krona 1.7 billion. Business Line spoke with Chris Houghton, who has been leading Ericsson’s India operations for a year, to know how the company sees India operations going forward.

At a time when most of the industry players downsized employees in India, Ericsson has expanded. Why is that?

We are here in this market to stay. We helped the Indian market to transform from 2G to 3G. Now with the data revolution taking place, I think we are in a strong position to help the Indian market transform itself once again with technologies like LTE and cloud.

If we look at the India numbers, it gives us great confidence in the market.

The National Telecom Policy 2012 targets 175 million broadband subscribers by 2017 and 600 million by 2020. Rural telecom penetration in India is targeted to be 70 per cent by 2017 and 100 per cent by 2020.

The roll out of 3G networks has started to drive mobile broadband and will continue to pick up pace as the device prices continue to fall and service becomes affordable and available.

How does India factor in Ericsson’s global operations?

Ericsson is committed to the Indian market and has established a very strong presence during its 100 years of operations in the country. We have one of the six global R&D centres in India; we were the first telecom equipment manufacturer to set up manufacturing operations at Jaipur in 1994 and we are the largest managed service provider in the country today.

As far as manufacturing is concerned, the factory currently manufactures RBS, CORE and microwave products covering GSM, CDMA and 3G technologies.

Another way of looking at India is the strength of our talent pool here – we have over 18,000 employees across our operations in India, making India the largest country for Ericsson globally, in terms of employee numbers.

We have in India Ericsson’s largest GNOC (Global Network Operating Centre) in the world that supports more than 300 million customers across countries such as the US, Australia, Vietnam, the UK and the UAE. Overall, we remain confident of India’s potential and continue to have a long-term view of the market.

Do you think telecom market in India is set for a rebound?

We have always believed in the potential of the Indian market. It can be a little bumpy but the fundamentals are good. When we entered India, over a 100 years ago, telecommunications infrastructure was literally a green field opportunity. Today, If I look at the macro trends that are driving the industry — social media transformation, mobile broadband and data growth, cable industry digitisation, the focus on enhancing consumer experience and the strong youth population in the country, there are enough and more reasons to make us feel that we are the right place.

As a leading ICT company, we will be a prime driver of transformation in the Networked Society and we are witnessing this transformation in India, as in other parts of the world.

How confident are you of sustaining your market position in India given the competition?

We are number one in the market, we have had it good so far but we still very hungry. We are not relaxed. We have big focus on people, strategy and customers. Being uncomfortable is a good thing because in technology you blink you will miss it and I don’t want to be the one to blink in India.

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