Nokia on Tuesday announced that it has started the manufacturing of 5G equipment at its manufacturing unit in Chennai, India.
Nokia, which was the first to manufacture the 5G New Radio in India, is now producing the Nokia AirScale massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (mMIMO) solution.

Nokia is exporting the equipment to many countries in advanced stages of 5G deployment.

Nokia has invested over INR 600 crore for developing the manufacturing facility which is spread over 140,000 square meters. This factory has manufactured more than 5 million telecom network equipment units over the years.

Nokia is manufacturing mMIMO based 5G products with the latest 64-Transmit/64-Receive (64T64R) configuration. Massive MIMO is a key element of 5G technology that delivers high capacity, especially in densely populated locations. It brings together antennas at the transmitter and receiver to ensure improved speed and spectrum efficiency.

Sanjay Malik, head of India Market, Nokia, said: “From being the first to manufacture 5G NR in India to producing mMIMO, it demonstrates our innovative manufacturing capabilities and our belief in India’s skill and talent to produce the best-in-class equipment. This will enable us to support Indian Operators as they prepare to launch 5G.”

In April this year, Bharti Airtel inked a $1 billion deal with Nokia to deploy the Finnish majors 5G-ready solutions across nine circles in the country. Nokia will lay the foundation for providing 5G connectivity in the future by deploying 300,000 radio units across several spectrum bands in those circles expected to be completed by 2022.