Nokia expands Bangalore R&D center to focus on 5G and next-gen core networks

BANGALORE, INDIA: Nokia has expanded its R&D facility in Bangalore by opening a new state-of-the-art facility.

The new facility will carry out research in areas including the cloud, ‘big data’ analytics, development of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and applications, as well as next-generation core and 5G.

Jonathan Harvey, Head of Cloud Core at Nokia said, "The Bangalore center is a crucial cloud core development unit of Nokia. It has become an important customer site for us as well." Nokia is already working with Indian service providers including Bharti Airtel and BSNL to help them transform their networks for 5G. This center will further allow Indian and global service providers to leverage Nokia’s next-gen technology and solutions.

The new facility was inaugurated on Wednesday by Minister of State, IT, BT, and Tourism, Priyank Kharge during Nokia's Innovation Day.

The Innovation Day is an annual event that brings together Nokia’s ecosystem partners – including customers, government, universities and startups – to witness demonstrations of the latest innovations. The program showcased more than 40 innovative projects on IoT, 5G, Drone Networks, Blockchain, NFC, collaborative AR,/VR, etc. One interesting innovation project is IoT-based traffic decongestion and ambulance prioritizer smart ambulance which can be of great help in boosting the emergency medical services.

Nokia established a dedicated 5G/IoT lab in Bangalore last year to work on applications for smart cities and public safety, as well as a number of IoT use cases including real-time city surveillance, smart parking.

"The state is responsive and quick in implementing new ideas and technologies that will improve the quality of lives of citizens,'' said Kharge. The state IT department is ready to support companies in doing pilots and PoC as well, said he.

The Bangalore center, one of Nokia’s four global R&D sites, currently employs more than 6,000 engineers and the numbers are likely to rise further in 2018. The expansion will also help the company to leverage the local talent base for research and development on the newer technology domains.

Rupa Santosh, head of the technology center, said, “We encourage our employees to immerse themselves in cutting-edge research. The center will provide a huge opportunity for bright engineers to work on upcoming technologies which will change the way we live and work.”