Nokia CEO Lauds India’s 5G Rollout, Launches 6G Lab In Bengaluru

Speaking at the launch of Nokia’s 6G research facility in Bengaluru, Nokia President and CEO Pekka Lundmark lauded India’s impressive 5G deployment, noting that it boasts the world’s third-largest 5G network base.

Lundmark said that the company is satisfied with the work done so far. However, he highlighted that there is more to be done and that the company will continue to support the digital growth of India. 

He further added, “This has been one of the fastest telecom network roll-outs ever and means India is now among the top three countries in the world that have the largest 5G installed base, with 5G download speeds beating those found in many advanced markets.”

The 6G lab was virtually inaugurated by India’s telecom minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw. The project aims to develop fundamental technologies and innovative use cases of 6G technology to address the future needs of both the telecom industry and society.  

Nishant Batra, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer of Nokia said, “We look forward to collaborating with key stakeholders to help India become a major player in 6G technology development and adoption; and take its place in the global arena as a leading developer and supplier of advanced telecom technologies and solutions.”

Outfitted with advanced research infrastructure, the lab will delve into the ‘Network as a Sensor’ technology. 

This unique approach allows the network to detect objects, individuals, and motion without dedicated sensors. This sensing capability will be seamlessly incorporated into the wireless network, working in tandem with communication services.

Nokia said that this lab is aimed at supporting India’s ambition to make significant contributions to the global 6G rollout. “Further, it is in the process of building research collaborations with premier research institutes in India like IISc and IITs to further scale up the 6G research initiative in India,” the company said.

This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on India’s 6G technology adoption on the occasion of Independence Day. “We rolled out 5G. My country is the fastest in the world to roll out 5G. We have reached more than 700 districts. And now we are already preparing for 6G,” Modi said. He further added that the country has already created a 6G task force to prepare for ambitious 6G goals of India. 

In March, the PM launched the country’s first 6G test bed and unveiled the ‘Bharat 6G Mission’ document. During the event, he said that the Indian youth from not just the big cities but also the smaller towns are working on developing apps, building solutions and designing technological devices that will propel India’s digital growth.