Ericsson is expanding its production capacity in India on the heels of the vendor scoring significant deals to provide 5G equipment to that country’s telecom operators.

The vendor said the expansion is with its local partner Jabil at its facility in Pune. That facility currently constructs 4G and 5G radios along with radio access network compute and microwave products. The expansion will target construction of Ericsson’s AIR 3219 and 3268 radios that integrate massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology.

Ericsson expects the expansion will include around 2,000 new positions. It’s also setting up a technology center designed to support new product introduction, production engineering for new equipment, and local deployments.

The vendor has been tapped by Indian mobile operators Bharti Airtel and Jio to provide 5G network equipment. Those operators recently secured 5G spectrum during a government auction with initial network deployments just starting to trickle out.

“As 5G gets introduced in India, we are ramping up production of our 5G telecom equipment in Pune in a phased manner to support the network deployments of Indian telecom service providers,” Nunzio Mirtillo, head of Ericsson’s operations in Southeast Asia, Oceania, and India, noted in a statement. “The production in India is part of our global production footprint with a presence across continents. This footprint has enabled us to secure a global, flexible, and resilient supply chain to respond quickly to market and customer needs, whereby India also benefits.”

While not specifically cited, India’s government has been pushing its “Make in India” program that is targeted at increasing in-country manufacturing. This is becoming increasingly critical for countries that want to better secure their supply chains and increase employment.

Ericsson made a similar move in North America in late 2018, which came under the shadow of then President Donald Trump pressuring telecom equipment vendors about manufacturing equipment in China.

Niklas Heuveldop, president and CEO of Ericsson North America, at that time told SDxCentral that the vendor planned to put company resources and innovation closer to important customers in one of Ericsson’s largest markets. The U.S. at that time accounted for at least 25% of the vendor’s overall sales for the previous 7 years.

The vendor eventually opened a highly automated production facility in Lewisville, Texas, which provided its first U.S.-made 5G gear to Verizon in mid-2020.

Rival vendors Nokia and Samsung have also been named to support the 5G deployments in India. Notably absent from the deals were Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE. The Indian government has placed severe restrictions on the use of 5G equipment from those vendors, which aligns with similar constraints placed by governments in Europe, parts of Asia, and North America. However, Huawei earlier this year did sign a deal to expand Bharti Airtel’s telecom infrastructure.

“The reality is that the Indian market, where there used to be Chinese vendors, they will be out of business, so that’s the reason why you see Nokia doing quite well with the first deal and Ericsson doing quite well with the deal,” John Strand, CEO at Strand Consult, explained in an interview with SDxCentral tied to the Bharti Airtel announcement. “They used to use Huawei but they are basically out of it. It looks like the Western vendors have gained market share at Bharti Airtel.”