Ericsson to Export India-Made Antennas to Europe: Senior Executive Vicente

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".

Ericsson announced it has hit a new milestone in its antenna manufacturing operations in India, with more than 15,000 antennas and 25 million components since July 2025 produced through its growing local ecosystem.

"Antennas manufactured in India are being exported to Europe and other global markets, strengthening India's role in Ericsson's global engineering, manufacturing and supply footprint" it said.

Since the launch of its first export-ready antennas manufactured in India in 2025, the telecom gear maker has been expanding local capabilities across sourcing, engineering, manufacturing and exports, serving customers in India and international markets.

As mobile networks evolve toward 5G standalone, AI-driven operations and future network architectures, antennas play an increasingly important role in unlocking network performance, the company said.

Ericsson Antenna System designs solutions for network impact, helping communications service providers improve coverage and capacity, strengthen uplink performance, use spectrum more efficiently, and reduce network energy consumption.

Mikael Eriksson, Head of Ericsson Antenna System, Ericsson noted that the company is building an end-to-end antenna ecosystem that combines local sourcing and manufacturing with Ericsson's global engineering capabilities.

"As networks become more intelligent and programmable, antenna performance will be increasingly important in getting the most from spectrum, sites and network investments. Expanding these capabilities in India strengthens both our ability to serve customers locally and India's contribution to Ericsson's global operations," Eriksson said.

The expansion in India also strengthens Ericsson's local supply and engineering capabilities -- through collaboration with manufacturing and technology partners, the company is developing capabilities spanning component sourcing, engineering, production and exports.

Vicente described India as an important part of Ericsson's global innovation, engineering and manufacturing footprint.

"The production of more than 15,000 antennas and 25 million components shows how quickly this ecosystem is developing and the contribution it can make both in India and globally. Together with our partners, we are developing the capabilities needed for the next generation of high-performing, energy-efficient and AI-ready networks," he added.