The webinar presented key findings of pandemic impact on ICT sector and future 5G trends and use cases. Nitin Bansal, Head of Ericsson India & Head of Network Solutions Market Area South east Asia, Oceania & India spoke about Ericsson’s footprint in India, and how the company has contributed to the ICT sector since 1903.

He also mentioned about various other aspects which makes Ericsson a perfect Glocal organization in India. For instance, it has over 25,000 employees in India with research and development facilities in Bengaluru, Chennai, and Gurugram. The company also has a world class manufacturing facility in Pune and has been manufacturing locally since 1994. Mr. Bansal also highlighted some global achievements like their live 5G networks, commercial 5G agreements and Ericsson 5G platform properties.

Patrik Cerwall, Head of Strategic Marketing Insights and Executive Editor of the Ericsson Mobility Report presented key findings from the report which focused on network usage trends in pandemic and 5G trends over the next ten years. He highlighted network traffic trends and behavior during lockdown, and how ICT has helped consumers in this difficult time to cope with the crisis. Moreover, according to the findings of the report India has the highest average monthly usage per smartphone currently and the number of smartphones in India are expected to rise by additional 410 million by 2025. The report also mentions that consumers have increasingly realized the importance of ICT in their daily life during pandemic and over 72 percent of Indians believe that working remotely will be the new normal in business organizations.

Later Dr. Ir. Ng Thiaw Seng, Head of Network Solutions – Strategic Network Evolution Market Area South East Asia, Oceania & India, talked about current 5G scenario and use cases. For instance, he stated that 5G launches have exceeded expectations in terms of data usage and adoption. Additionally, he also mentioned that telecom has emerged as a foundation of every business innovation with emergence of technologies such as cloud, IoT, 5G, and Edge computing. Furthermore, major 5G use cases and their future trends such as manufacturing, healthcare, public safety, automotive, agriculture etc. were highlighted in the webinar.