Finnish technology major, Nokia on Wednesday said that it would expand its Research and Development (R&D) centre in Bengaluru to develop 5G mobile technology. Nokia R&D centre Head, Rupa Santosh said, “We are increasing staffing at our R&D centre here in 2018 to focus on next-generation technologies spanning 5G mobile network architecture, Voice over LTE (Long-Term Evolution or a standard for high-speed wireless communication for mobile devices and data terminals), cloud and big data analytics.”
The fifth generation or 5G mobile networks which are presently being developed by Telco’s globally, are expected to be rolled out by the year 2020. The 5G networks will replace the current 4G networks and will enable voice, data and video traffic at higher speeds via faster bandwidth. Santosh further said, “We are already doing collaborate research in 5G mobile network architecture with 14 industrial and academic partners in the European Union.”
The facility was inaugurated by Priyank Kharge, Karnataka Minister for IT, BT and Tourism at the centre located at Manyata Embassy Park in Bengaluru. The centre which is one of its four global R&D centres, with two in Europe and one in China, has a headcount of over 6,000 engineers working presently. The number is expected to increase in the year 2018, the company said in a statement.
“The expansion of our presence in India is a testimony to our deep commitment to harness the enormous potential of local talent for research and development. The center will provide a huge opportunity for bright engineers to work on upcoming technologies which will change the way we live and work,” said Rupa Santosh in a statement.
Nokia is currently working with telecom operators like Bharti Airtel and state-run BSNL to test 5G communications. The company had also established a dedicated lab in the year 2016 for 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) in Bengaluru to work on applications for smart cities and public safety, including real-time city surveillance and smart parking.
