Nokia inaugurated the establishment of a 6G lab in India, echoing the country's mission to stay in the game in the global 6G race.
Nokia released a press release saying that it had established a 6G lab at its global R&D center in Bangalore, India, adding that the lab would research the "Network as a Sensor" technology that enables the network to sense objects, people, and movement without on-board sensors. The technology supports the vision of bridging the digital and physical worlds.
According to the press release, the lab supports India's Bharat 6G Vision, which envisions a key global role for India in the standardization, development, and implementation of 6G.
Nishant Batra, chief strategy and technology officer of Nokia, said that the company is honored to contribute towards the realization of Bharat 6G Vision. Ashwini Vaishnaw, minister of electronics and IT of India, said that the inauguration of the lab in Bengaluru is another step towards Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of making India an innovation hub.
Meanwhile, according to PTI, Pekka Lundmark, president and CEO of Nokia, praised India's 5G coverage, saying India's 5G rollout is truly remarkable and has been one of the fastest telecom network roll-outs ever.As major mobile operators, such as Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, are expanding their 5G network in India, Nokia and Ericsson posted revenue growth of more than double digits for the past quarter.
India, led by the Department of Telecommunications under the Ministry of Communications, constituted a Technology Innovation Group on 6G (TIG-6) in November 2021 and formed six task forces under TIG-6G deliberating on various aspects of emerging telecom technologies and platforms in the next decade. India also launched the Bharat 6G Vision, expected to be completed in two phases, including phase 1 for 2023–2025 and phase 2 between 2025 and 2030.
According to India's official document on Bharat 6G Vision, during phase 1, assistance will be extended to encourage innovative concepts, ventures with inherent risks, and initial proof-of-concept trials. Additionally, concepts and ideas demonstrating potential and the likelihood of gaining recognition within the global peer community will receive substantial support to advance them to a stage where their use cases and advantages are well-defined. This phase will also involve the creation of implementation strategies and test environments, paving the way for eventual commercialization as part of phase 2.
Following the 6G mission unveiled in March, the US-based Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions and the Bharat 6G Alliance, founded in July 2023 by the Department of Telecommunications of India, signed an MoU to explore collaboration opportunities for 6G technologies in September, reports Mint.
