• Popular roles include engineers specialising in networks, IP networking, software, firmware, and automation.
• Department of Telecom in India has approved trials of 5G with Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, and C-DoT while keeping the Chinese telecom giant Huawei out of the list.

Technology companies are boosting their investments in India in the 5G space as the government has begun the process of conducting trials by allotting airwaves to telecom service providers.

Companies are looking to integrate 5G technologies into existing network elements and stepping-up research and development to provide customer management solutions.

With 5G expected to deliver 10 times faster download speed than 4G and with millisecond latency, Department of Telecom in India has approved trials of 5G with Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, and C-DoT while keeping the Chinese telecom giant Huawei  out of the list.

Ajay Thalluri, Business Fundamentals Analyst at GlobalData, said that job postings have doubled between the fourth quarter of 2020 and first quarter of this year, indicating an increase in the demand for expertise in 5G domain.

“Popular roles include engineers specialising in networks, IP networking, software, firmware, and automation,” he said.

Indian companies such as Bharti Airtel are expected to benefit by collaborating with the likes of Qualcomm Technologies in 5G/5G NR domain and access chipsets. India has permitted telecom operators such as Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) to conduct trials for 5G with help from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and technology providers for end use and applications.

Reliance Jio Infocomm, with its own indigenous technology, will be conducting trials.

India has allocated spectrum to telecom operators at locations including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Gujarat  and Hyderabad.

Experts needed

Thalluri said that India is emerging as one of the key markets for Ericsson.

“Over 20 per cent of the jobs posted since January 1, 2020, are in India with the company looking at cellular and radio network prospects. Ericsson is also exploring security aspects of 5G networks by evaluating business strategies and requirements,” he said. 

Cisco Systems is investing $5 billion to fund 5G projects globally, including India. The company posted over 30 per cent of the 5G jobs in India since January 1, 2020.

Cisco’s 5G related hiring is dominated by engineers for cloud core and packet core teams to enable virtualised cloud services. Job postings are also for 5G mobile core projects to translate customer business needs into product technical requirements and use cases.

Meanwhile, companies such as Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co are also hiring for experts in 5G domain.

Dell is building a 5G R&D team from the ground up at its Bengaluru office to design and develop products and solutions for service providers and enterprise customers.

HP, which is gaining significant traction with communication service providers (CSP) accounts in various areas including 5G services, is providing cloud-native 5G offerings.

With a host of companies looking at various 5G use cases in India, Thalluri said that hiring could go beyond conventional telecom end use and likely to increase over the coming months with companies exploring various components of the 5G value chain.

Key jobs posted:

• Director, Software Engineering – 5G R&D
• Customer Success Specialist (CSS) – Mobility – 4G/5G
• Embedded 5G/4G Cellular RF Software/Firmware Engineer
• CMS R&D – 5G Micro-services Java Developer Bangalore, Karnataka; and 5G Systems Engineer.