India has become Ericsson’s second-biggest market, after North America, by revenue in the latest quarter. Do you expect the country to maintain its position amid capex tapering by carriers?
I’ve seen markets change over decades. If you’re a global company, you may have headwinds in some places and strength in others. We are proud of what we do in India, in North America, and elsewhere. We continue to focus on staying relevant for each market. Our industry operates in long cycles, with large foundational investment that sustains growth. There is always a need to improve networks. If you compare services and capabilities today as against five, 10, or 15 years ago, progress has been dramatic.
Has the crisis in West Asia created an imbalance in operations?
Our focus is to ensure resilience in how we supply products to customers. We manufacture in Pune, and now also in Delhi. And we have some components or products in other countries. This allows us to shift our supplies, depending on global conditions. It also comes down to sourcing our components in terms of having second and even third suppliers. Based on global developments, we adapt procurement to ensure supply continuity.
Has discussion with Indian carriers started on 5G Advanced?
Rather than focusing too much on the term “5G Advanced,” I’d say we should continuously upgrade networks.
How do you view Vodafone Idea’s renewed push?
We’ve worked with Vodafone and Idea for a long time and are happy to continue supporting them.
Do AI models like Claude Mythos pose a challenge for telecom companies, service providers, and technology or equipment providers?
I wouldn’t frame advanced AI models as a challenge to telecom players but as a catalyst for the next phase of network evolution. These models are driving a shift from human-driven traffic to far more dynamic, machine-to-machine interaction, which places new demands on networks in terms of uplink capacity, latency, reliability, and real-time responsiveness. For service providers and technology partners, this creates a significant opportunity. AI increases the value of connectivity by requiring more intelligent, programmable, and distributed networks — from cloud to edge. The real question is how quickly the ecosystem can adapt to support these workloads and capture emerging value pools, because 5G enables AI to scale up.
Does this put India ahead? In research & development and in deploying AI through telecom?
India has some of the best 5G networks in the world, not just large in scale but high in performance. The digital public infrastructure — Aadhaar, Unified Payments Interface, etc —creates strong foundations. There is a push to democratise AI, making it accessible even to those with limited literacy. All this creates momentum. In many ways, India is ahead over several other regions.
 "Ericsson's chief technology officer for the Asia-Pacific, Magnus Ewerbring")