Nokia expands Bengaluru R&D facility to work on 5G, VoLTE and cloud

Finnish gear maker Nokia on Wednesday said that it has expanded its research and development (R&D) facility in Bengaluru to carry out research in areas including the cloud, ‘big data’ analytics, Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and applications, as well as next-generation core and 5G. The center, one of Nokia’s four global R&D sites, currently employs more than 6,000 engineers, with that number to rise in 2018.

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 technology leadership and develop capabilities for future technologies.

“The expansion of our presence in India is a testimony to our deep commitment to harness the enormous potential of local talent for research and development. The center will provide a huge opportunity for bright engineers to work on upcoming technologies which will change the way we live and work," Rupa Santosh, head of the technology center, said in a statement.


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

Nokia had earlier this month began manufacturing of its 5G- ready multiband base station in India from its Chennai facility. The Chennai factory, established in 2008, is Nokia’s biggest production unit, serving both domestic and global markets with nearly half of all radio base stations produced exported to global markets.a