Ericsson is stepping up its research and development investments in India and strengthening its collaboration with IIT Madras as it positions the country as a core innovation hub for AI-powered 5G and future 6G networks.
The Swedish telecom equipment maker, which has its largest global workforce in India at around 22,000 employees, is expanding its R&D mandate beyond core networks and radio to include hardware and ASIC design, enterprise 5G, wireless WAN and network programmability. The move effectively makes India one of the few markets where Ericsson now covers almost its entire technology stack.
“We have been very strong in India for a long time, but this is now our biggest employee presence in any country,” Erik Ekudden, CTO of Ericsson, told Moneycontrol, underlining the strategic weight India carries in the company’s global roadmap.
“India has moved to the forefront as a leading market, and that has changed the speed of development here. If you look at Ericsson’s complete portfolio, you will find R&D activities somewhere in India across almost all areas,” Ekudden said.
Ericsson’s collaboration with IIT Madras forms a key pillar of this R&D push. The company is continuing its long-standing engagement with the institute, including work on artificial intelligence and responsible AI through research groups such as SERA. The partnership builds on nearly a decade of joint work on the convergence of networks and AI.
“What we are doing in general is paving the way toward AI-powered 5G, which is just around the corner, and then AI-native networks, especially 6G,” Ekudden said. He added that Ericsson is a strong supporter of the government’s Bharat 6G vision and is actively involved in working groups and research efforts alongside academia and industry.
India’s rapid 5G rollout and leadership in areas such as standalone networks and fixed wireless access — now with over 10 million 5G FWA connections — have accelerated Ericsson’s R&D momentum in the country. The company is also ramping up work on network APIs and programmability in Bengaluru, enabling developers and enterprises to build applications that leverage network intelligence and edge capabilities.
AI sits at the centre of this strategy. Ericsson is embedding AI across its full technology stack — from radio and core networks to orchestration and operations — while also building networks optimized for emerging AI workloads such as generative AI, immersive applications and edge-based inference.
“It used to be a discussion about what was happening in the rest of the world and how perhaps that would eventually happen in India. Now, in many cases, it’s the other way around,” Ekudden said, noting that India now leads in mobile data consumption and is at the forefront of 5G deployment.
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