The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ericsson India Private Limited, to work together on developing new 5G use cases, knowledge sharing on 5G technology concepts, industry and innovation trends including 3GPP standardisation progress. The partnership will help BSNL to utilise Ericsson’s 5G Center of Excellence, established at IIT Delhi, to work on evaluating benefits of 5G technology in areas like rural connectivity, connected healthcare, industrial automation, public safety, video surveillance, energy and agriculture amongst others.
Anupam Shrivastava, the CMD of BSNL said, “5G and IoT will enable new opportunities and create new ecosystems and through this association with Ericsson, we intend to take the lead in the development of these new technologies. We will test, learn and develop use cases that will help us meet the diverse needs of our customers in the future. 5G will also help create the backbone on which Digital India initiatives will be delivered.”
Nunzio Mirtillo, head of market area, South East Asia, Oceania and India at Ericsson said, “We are proud to partner with BSNL to work on use-cases and scenarios for application of 5G technology and how it will help realise the Digital India vision. Ericsson has been a key part of the telecom ecosystem in India for several decades, bringing voice and data services to millions of customers in the country. As networks evolve towards 5G, we have the products and solutions as well as the expertise to help operators evolve seamlessly from 4G to 5G.”
BSNL is working closely with OEMs and technology partners to showcase strong 5G ecosystem to enable innovation for new use cases, and business models. 5G will enable tremendous opportunities in sectors like manufacturing, energy and utilities followed by public safety and health sectors. Some of the 5G use cases that could be implemented using the unique features of 5G technology include industrial control and automation, autonomous driving, safety and traffic efficiency services, hospital applications and medical data management amongst others.