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Ericsson, a Sweden-based telecom equipment firm, has won its first deal in India in the utilities space. It is to install 15,000 smart meters in Assam over the next three years, for a public sector power company.
“The pilot project will start soon and the company expects to get more such deals in its industry and society vertical, created last year to tap opportunities thrown by the government through its Digital India and smart cities initiatives,” said Orvar Hurtig, vice-president, industry and society, Ericsson.
For Ericsson in India, the bulk of business comes from telecom network equipment. The company expects 20 per cent of the business to come from the industry and society vertical by 2020 in India, as well as globally, he said.
Under the smart meters project, Ericsson will provide a comprehensive Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) solution for operating the 15,000 units, along with systems integration and support services in Guwahati.
The solution will offer outage management, reduction in aggregate technical and commercial losses, power quality management and net metering.
The aim is to reduce network losses and improve system efficiency. The smart meter deployment is a key component in improving energy usage and distribution, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Under the new segment, the focus is on three areas -- public safety, utilities and transport. In Elektrilevi, Estonia's largest utility, Ericsson has deployed 630,000 smart meters, along with Operation Support Systems to manage the data collected.
Ericsson is also in discussion with state governments for their solutions on 'smart cities', said Hurtig.
Ericsson India reported 34% jump in the fourth quarter at 3.2 billion Swedish krona ($380 million), driven by investments in mobile broadband infrastructure by Indian telecom operators to support the high growth in data usage. Ericsson India’s full year sales grew by 74% over the previous year. India has contributed 5% to overall sales in FY15 and continues to be top third country, for Ericsson globally.
The government has clubbed all its digital programmes under Digital India, with an estimated Rs 1.13 lakh crore of projects. And, approved a plan for building 100 'smart cities' in India, with an outlay of Rs 48,000 crore.
In the domain of Public safety, Ericsson provides end-to-end solutions in life-saving and emergency response. For instance, in Sweden, SOS Alarm relies on Ericsson to support emergency service coordination. “We are looking to deploy similar solutions in India. It will grow very fast,” said Hurtig.
Around 40 per cent of the population is expected to be covered by long-term evolution networks in India by 2020 which means various industries including transportation, public safety and utilities, are realizing the transformative power of a fast-moving ICT environment as India moves in its journey to become 'Digital India', he said.
