Ericsson is reportedly planning to locally manufacture all telecom equipment that it sells in India.

According to a report from Times of India, Andres Vicente, head of market area South East Asia, Oceania & India (MOAI) at Ericsson, expressed the vendor’s intention to manufacture all wares designed for India in the country – including future 6G gear.

Vicente's comments came from a speech at was speaking at India Mobile Congress 2025, where he also reaffirmed plans to expand the firm’s Bengaluru-based ASIC R&D facility by 150 positions.

“I think that India has a lifetime opportunity to become an alternative ecosystem where all components are produced here. To develop these sophisticated products, we still import many components. We need to change that by investing holistically … in the ecosystem of components, filters, batteries, closures, and many other things,” said Vicente.

Aside from Bengaluru, Ericsson also operates R&D sites in Chennai and Gurugram working across transport, packet core, cloud, AI, operations support systems (OSS), and business support systems (BSS). Its Bengaluru site, classed as one of Ericsson’s three Global AI Accelerators, recently started producing the firm’s first passive antennas for India, in a collaboration with VVDN Technologies.

The firm initiated its India 6G project at the Chennai R&D site in 2023, and on the 5G front, one of Ericsson’s biggest global 5G deals to date is its partnership with Indian operator Bharti Airtel, announced in 2024.

Ericsson's APAC expansion

With its focus on India-based manufacturing, Ericsson is firming up its operations in Asia-Pacific (APAC), including the Oceania region.

This week, the vendor announced a team-up with Australian operator Telstra on an autonomous network initiative, building on the pair’s deployment of what was claimed to be the first programmable, 5G Advanced-native network in APAC.

That deal also expanded Ericsson’s autonomous ventures in Asia, following a similar arrangement with Malaysia’s CelComDigi from April, as well as its extensive work to date with Malaysian telecom operator, Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB).

This week also saw Ericsson anoint a new exec in the region, with Ashish Verma taking on the role of head of business development for mission-critical networks and enterprise.

Based in Sydney, Verma will have responsibility for MOAI in the role, including overseeing Ericsson’s 3GPP, 4G, and 5G-based mission-critical solutions for public safety and defense sectors across Australia and New Zealand.

The appointment follows the recent promotion of Adriana Garrido to the same MOAI area, joining Verma and Vicente as head of cloud, software & services (CSS).

Recent research from Analysys Mason reported that 5G deployments remain rare in emerging APAC markets, but India is leading the way with 5G accounting for 20.8% of mobile connections in the country by the first quarter of 2024.