Nokia's manufacturing unit in Chennai has started manufacturing 5G radio equipment called base stations, the company announced on Thursday.
One of the largest telecom equipment manufacturing plants in the country, the plant recently hit the 4 million unit annual production milestone of 2G, 3G and 4G units.
It serves both domestic as well as global customers, shipping to over 100 countries.
"Nokia was the first to leverage the skills and capabilities in India and start manufacturing telecom networks equipments in the country in 2008. We are now pioneering 5G manufacturing in the country, making India and the world ready for 5G." said Sanjay Malik, Senior Vice President and Head of the India Market at Nokia.
Nokia's Chennai factory produces a range of telecom equipment across technologies, and now will include 5G gear in its shipment as network deployments start.
Public sector telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) this month signed a MoU with Nokia Solutions and Networks India Pvt Ltd for Industry 4.0.
Industry 4.0 is the next level of automation in manufacturing where machines become smart, share data and includes Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing.
Nokia Solutions has already started shipping out 5G ready telecom equipment out of its facility near here to the US, Asia Pacific, Europe and other places.
According to Malik, the standardisation of 5G technology will be ready by the first quarter of the next year.
