Ericsson will export India-made antennas to Europe, senior executive Andres Vicente said on Wednesday. India’s rapid 5G rollout, which now covers 95 percent of the population, gives the country a competitive edge for 6G. Vicente noted, "We are making the announcement that we will export to Europe all the capabilities."
Ericsson will export antennas manufactured in India to Europe, as the country's rapid 5G rollout gives it an edge in moving towards 6G, senior executive Andres Vicente said. India has 430 million 5G subscriptions, with 95% mid-band 5G population coverage.
New Delhi, Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson will export to Europe the antennas it manufactures in India, a senior company executive said on Wednesday, adding that the speed of India's 5G rollout has given the country a competitive advantage in moving towards 6G.
Speaking at the India Mobile Congress 2026, Andres Vicente, Senior Vice President and Head of Market Area South East Asia, Oceania, and India, Ericsson, said it is impressive that India's mid-band 5G coverage reaches 95 per cent of the population against 45 per cent globally.
India has a competitive advantage in order to take another step moving towards 6G because the difficult part, which is setting the right architecture, has already been done, he noted.
"We feel very proud to say that we started our journey in India in 1903. This is 123 years ago, and then we were the first manufacturer in order to produce in India in 1994. We set our own manufacturing capacities in India. Today, we produce all the 4G and 5G radios that are used in the country, within the country. We also produce the antennas that are being used for massive MIMO and artificial intelligence introduction in India. And we not only produce for India, but we also export from India.
"Today, we are making the announcement that we will export to Europe all the capabilities and antennas that we are manufacturing here in India," Vicente said.
According to Vicente, India's transition to 5G standalone has been completed. As a result, its networks are cloud-driven and programmable and can offer differentiated connectivity, which he described as the ingredients needed to evolve to 6G.
Citing 5G adoption figures, Vicente said India has 430 million 5G mobile subscriptions, which make up 35 per cent of the country's total subscriptions. He said 43 per cent of mobile data traffic is carried on 5G.
"India is the country with the highest usage in the world per customer," he said, putting the figure at 35 gigabytes. He said usage is growing across categories, including video and gaming.
AI will reshape the telecom industry in two ways, he said, AI for networks and networks for AI. To prepare networks for AI, compute power will have to be introduced at many levels so that networks become more efficient, intelligent, intent-driven, and autonomous.
He said networks will also need significant investment in uplink experience and low latency to support AI use cases such as autonomous vehicles and drones. He described bringing AI compute and inference closer to the network as a key opportunity for telecom operators and for governments "in order to take control and sovereignty of this intelligence". PTI