Telecom equipment maker will focus on next generation technologies like 5G

Finland’s telecom network equipment maker Nokia said it was expanding its research and development centre in Bengaluru to focus on next-generation technologies.

“The (engineering) team here works on end-to-end solutions and products,” said Sanjay Malik, head of India market, Nokia.

‘Cloud, big data’

The expanded facility will carry out research in areas such as cloud computing and big data analytics. It would also work on fifth-generation mobile networks or 5G that aims to bring richer and faster data and Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE), a standard for high-speed wireless communication for data terminals and mobile phones. In future, these would power innovations such as telemedicine, driverless cars and automation at workplace and home.

“From 5G perspective... it would increase the speed multifold, improve the capacity and help in heavy data usage kind of applications and reduce latency,” said Mr. Malik.

Nokia said the centre in Bengaluru was one of its four global research and development sites. It now employed more than 6,000 engineers “with that number [set] to rise in 2018,” said Mr. Malik. But he declined to specify the number of engineers the company planned to hire.

“The work we do (at the centre) is for the products that are sold globally,” said Rupa Santosh, head of the technology centre. She said the centre took complete ownership from early life cycle to delivery of the products. “That is powerfully motivating,” she said.

The company said it had also established a dedicated lab for 5G and Internet of Things (IoT), a technology where devices communicate with each other intelligently, in Bengaluru to work on applications for smart cities and public safety.

It had created a number of IoT use cases, including real-time city surveillance and smart parking. The firm was also working with Indian service providers, including Bharti Airtel and State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. to help them transform their networks to 5G.