Telecom gears makers Ericsson on Saturday launched its ‘India 6G’ programme with the formation of an India 6G Research team in its Chennai research and development (R&D) centre.
Ericsson has three R&D centres in India -- Chennai, Bengaluru and Gurugram. This ‘India 6G’ team comprises of senior research leaders and a team of experienced researchers across Radio, Networks, AI and Cloud, who have been entrusted with developing fundamental solutions for the future of telecommunications, the company said.
The company envisions a 6G network platform which connects humans and machines and is able to fully merge physical and digital worlds to allow seamless interaction and immersive experiences, it said.
“Our views on 6G are aligned with the views of ubiquitous connectivity, sustainable networks and affordable communications from Bharat 6G vision statement of the government,” Nitin Bansal, Head of Ericsson India, said here at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2023.
Based on the work being done by Indian researchers and the global teams, Ericsson in India is well poised to usher in the “India 6G” era in collaboration with the government, universities and the industry ecosystem in India, he said.
“For next few years we will continue to focus on 5G...we are evaluating some building blocks for 6G as 6G is still a few years away, but it is good to start early so that we are in the lead as a country in 6G,” Bansal said.
Together with Ericsson research teams in Sweden and the US, the India research team will work collaboratively to develop the technology which will help to deliver a cyber -physical continuum where networks will deliver critical services, immersive communications, omnipresent Internet of things (IoT) while ensuring the integrity of the delivered information, the company said.
The 6G research team in India will develop novel solutions in collaboration with Ericsson Global Research teams, it added.
Meanwhile, Ericsson in a report said that by the end of 2023, it is likely to see 1.67 billion 5G subscriptions globally. Compared to 4G users, 5G users spend one hour per week more on metaverse related services, such as gaming in virtual worlds, and augmented reality (AR).