Nokia said its manufacturing unit in Chennai, India has started manufacturing 5G New Radio (NR) based on the 3GPP 5G New Radio Release 15 standard.

The telecom equipment manufacturing unit in Chennai recently reached the 4 million unit annual production milestone of 2G, 3G and 4G units. The Chennai manufacturing plant of Nokia serves both domestic as well as global customers, shipping to over 100 countries.

Nokia’s Chennai factory produces telecom equipment across technologies, and now will include 5G gear in its shipments as network deployments start.

The Nokia Chennai plant recently implemented the first Smart Manufacturing application of Industry 4.0 in India leveraging solutions such as Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR), connected Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, and Internet of Things to enhance operations and increase productivity.

Nokia said the plant is equipped with manufacturing technologies such as surface mounting technology, with a capacity of 12.8 billion components every year, 3D automated optical inspection and X-Ray inspection capability.

“Nokia was the first to leverage the skills and capabilities in India and start manufacturing telecom networks equipments in the country in 2008, and develop the local supply chain for various components,” Sanjay Malik, senior vice president and head of the India Market, at Nokia, said.

Nokia earlier won a $3.5 billion 5G network deal from T-Mobile, a leading telecom operator in the US.

AT&T, another telecom operator in US, in September named Nokia as one of its 5G network suppliers. AT&T will launch mobile 5G in five additional cities – Houston, Jacksonville, Louisville, New Orleans, and San Antonio – this year.

Sprint, another telecom operator in US, in September conducted live demonstration of a 5G New Radio connection over a dual mode-capable Massive MIMO radio.

Verizon, another operator in US, completed the first transmission of a 3GPP New Radio 5G signal to a receiver situated in a moving vehicle. Verizon had earlier completed a series of outdoor data sessions over the 5G New Radio standard.