New Delhi, Oct 28 (IANS) Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson on Saturday announced the launch of its ‘India 6G’ programme with the formation of a 6G research team at its Chennai R&D centre, as the government aims to make the country a leader in 6G technology after a successful 5G roll-out.

The ‘India 6G’ team has senior research leaders and a team of experienced researchers across radio, networks, AI and Cloud to help develop fundamental solutions for the future of telecommunications.

Together with Ericsson research teams in Sweden and the US, the India research team will work to develop the 6G technology which will help to deliver a cyber-physical continuum where networks will deliver critical services, immersive communications and omnipresent internet of things (IoT), while ensuring the integrity of the delivered information.

“By establishing a dedicated 6G research team for in-country research, contextual to India’s need and collaborating with the world-class research programs across international research labs, we look forward to incorporating the needs of India into the mainstream of telecommunication technology evolution“ said Magnus Frodigh, Head of Research, Ericsson.

Ericsson has three R&D centres in the country -- Chennai, Bengaluru and Gurugram.

Ericsson is partnering with premier institutes in the country for radio, AI and cloud research, the most recent being a five-year partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras’ (IIT Madras) Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI) that was signed in September.

AI Research is of high importance to Ericsson as the 6G networks would be autonomously driven by AI algorithms.

With the setting up of 6G research in India, Ericsson said it looks forward to playing a pivotal role in enabling India to be at the forefront of future communication technology.

“Our views on 6G are aligned with the views of ubiquitous connectivity, sustainable networks and affordable communications from the Bharat 6G vision statement of the government,” said Nitin Bansal, Head of Ericsson India.