Ericsson's pact with Vodafone Idea is the next step towards a $27 billion goal

• Ericsson just announced that they have been selected by Vodafone Idea Limited to deploy 5G-ready equipment across 8 circles in India.
  
• This allows Ericsson to enhance Vodafone Idea’s networks with advanced LTE capabilities stepping closer towards their $27 billion goal.
  
• Ericsson will also been providing network consolidation planning, design and network rollout services to help increase the efficiency of Vodafone Idea’s networks.
  

Swedish telecom giant Ericsson will lay the fifth generation (5G) telecom network for India's largest mobile service provider, by number of subscribers, Vodafone Idea. The contract duration will be three years, according to Nitin Bansal, Ericsson's India managing director.

The Stockholm-based company is hoping to capitalize on the $27 billion market potential from its 5G network roll outs in India.

As a part of the deal, Ericsson will supply radio access and transport equipment from its 5G portfolio for Vodafone Idea in eight telecom circles in India. "Consolidation of the existing deployment base (2G/3G) will be carried out to maximise the spectrum on LTE," Ericsson said.

In fact, Vodafone Idea is not the only Indian network that Ericsson that tie-ups for 5G integration. In one form or another, Ericsson has contracts will all major Indian telcos including Airtel and Jio.

In October last year, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Ericsson unveiled jointly developed 5G use cases which were showcased over a live 5G network in Navi Mumbai and in Delhi.

Ericsson is racing with Huawei, Nokia, Samsung, and Cisco in India as the world's second-largest telecommunications market, with over a billion active users as of October 2018, is set to the technology leap.

The network trials by the Indian government are yet to begun though

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