Ericsson has been working with communications service providers in India to develop 5G use cases.

This collaborative industry work is part of a wider drive to develop 5G in India, boosted by the Centre of Excellence and Innovation Lab for 5G at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), which Ericsson established in Delhi in July. The Ericsson lab, the first of its kind in India, aims to fast-track 5G deployments by bringing together telecom ecosystems, academia, industry, and start-ups from across the country.

Ericsson has been working with some of the country’s biggest service providers such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

In the lead-up to India Mobile Congress 2018, which was held last week, Ericsson and service provider Reliance Jio developed a series of ultra-low latency 5G use-cases. These included remotely-operated machinery and a virtual reality (VR)-assisted driven bus connected to a 5G network, both of which were part of the event. A 5G connected car was made accessible by the IIT at India Mobile Congress for remote driving over a live 5G network in 3.5 GHz.

Reliance Jio is in the process of building a greenfield SDN network in India. Earlier this year the company named some of its network vendors, including Cisco, Samsung, Nokia, and Mavenir. Ericsson wasn’t named at that time.

Ericsson and service provider BSNL also used the India Mobile Congress event to sign a 5G memorandum of understanding to work together on developing new 5G use cases, share knowledge on 5G technology concepts, and collaborate on the 3GPP standardization process. The partnership will also leverage Ericsson’s 5G Center of Excellence.