Ericsson introduced a 6G programme at its R&D centre in Chennai, with the team made up of senior research leaders and experts covering radio, networks, AI and cloud technologies.

The team will collaborate with colleagues in Sweden and the US, Ericsson stated.

Head of research Magnus Frodigh explained a dedicated local 6G research team will enable it to incorporate “the needs of India into the mainstream of telecommunication technology evolution”.

Nitin Bansal, head of Ericsson India, added the vendor’s “views on 6G are aligned with the views of ubiquitous connectivity, sustainable networks and affordable communications” outlined in a government Bharat 6G vision.

Ericsson listed channel modelling, hybrid beamforming, low-energy networks, cloud evolution and sustainable computing among the projects the Indian 6G team will work on.

Other initiatives for its global research teams are trustworthy, explainable and bias-free AI algorithms; integrated sensing and communication functions for man-machine systems; and compute offload to edge computing.

Ericsson also has R&D centres in Bengaluru and Gurgaon.

While the first 6G specifications in 3GPP Release 21 are not expected until 2028, the South Korean government is aiming for commercial rollouts that year.