"India has done a 'strong job' on telecom connectivity" says Börje Ekholm, CEO of Ericsson
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Questions asked in this interview
7
0:00And ET Now Swadesh, can we have you back on stage?
0:43Can you talk about the presence, the importance of India, and in the overall scheme of things, where does India really fit in?
1:56And what about the 5G technology adaptation in India?
3:07So Börje, how do you foresee the 5G technology contributing to India's growth?
4:15And are there any use cases within India which others perhaps can take inspiration from?
5:09And how can essentially the 5G service providers really benefit from it?
6:53How do you see the entire network, or the mobile network, really evolving in the future?
Börje Ekholm joining us here at the Global Business Summit. He's of course CEO of Ericsson, and he's here to share his perspective on transforming India's tomorrow with 5G. In conversation with him, back again, Nikun Dalia, Editor-in-Chief, ET Now. And ET Now Swadesh, can we have you back on stage? And of course, we're doing it in transformative style as well, where Börje joins us here on screen. Yes. Well, since we're talking technology, I just thought that the best way to really talk to the Ericsson Global Head is to really connect technology. And right.
Wonderful. But now, Ericsson has been in India for about 120 years. Can you talk about the presence, the importance of India, and in the overall scheme of things, where does India really fit in?
Yeah, thank you for having me. First of all, yes, India is one of our most important markets. We've been in India since, as you noted, 120 years. I think we built the first switch in 1903. But since then, of course, we have evolved. We've been part of 2G through 5G. And today, India is one of our most important countries with the largest workforce. So we have more than 20,000 colleagues in India. Here we're of course doing service delivery, but I would also say it's a key hub for our research in AI, 6G, as well as network APIs. So for us, it's really a very important presence. And you now see a very fast 5G rollout, and of course that's something that we have been a key partner for the Indian operators in achieving. So we're very excited about our presence.
So Börje, how has India's strategic investment in digital infrastructure and efficient spectrum allocation really positioned you on the digital forefront? And what about the 5G technology adaptation in India?
That's a great question. You know, to participate in the future and to digitalize a country, it's all about the digital stack, and building out that whole stack is critical. The first and very important step here is of course the connectivity layer. And there, India has done a very, very strong job. So if we look today, it's built out 5G coverage for, I think, 80% population coverage, 270 million subscribers of 5G already. So I think India is by far one of the fastest buildouts of 5G we have seen in the world. And today it's actually a very strong network, probably one of the absolutely highest consumption of data in any network around the world will be found in India.
So Börje, how do you foresee the 5G technology contributing to India's growth? Because with 5G comes speed, with speed comes productivity and connectivity, and when productivity and connectivity come together, that always will lead to economic growth.
I think it already has, actually. So if you look at, I think the strategies around Digital India, it's all built on the connectivity. You have, of course, there 4G networks played a role, but now it's migrating over to 5G. And what I'm really excited about is to see the way India has been able to digitalize the whole country. But what I also am excited to see is what's going to happen in the future, because we add new use cases, entrepreneurs, innovators, call it a startup ecosystem in India will actually have a chance here to develop new types of solutions, new products on top of the networks. And I think that's going to pivot India towards a very exciting future.
So Börje, how exactly do you see 5G or Indian companies really benefiting from this entire 5G turn or tide? And are there any use cases within India which others perhaps can take inspiration from?
9 more exchanges in this transcript
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Ekholm, B. (2025, February 15). India Has Done a Strong Job on Telecom Connectivity: Börje Ekholm|ET Now Global Business Summit 2025 [Interview transcript]. ET Now. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1217906/
MLA
Börje Ekholm. "India Has Done a Strong Job on Telecom Connectivity: Börje Ekholm|ET Now Global Business Summit 2025." ET Now, 15 Feb. 2025. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1217906/.
BibTeX
@misc{ekholm2025_1217906,
author = {Börje Ekholm},
title = {India Has Done a Strong Job on Telecom Connectivity: Börje Ekholm|ET Now Global Business Summit 2025},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, ET Now. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2025},
month = {feb},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1217906/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
