Guwahati: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has met Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark to discuss India's strides in building next-generation digital infrastructure.

In a tweet, Modi said that it was a ‘fruitful’ meeting.
“A fruitful meeting with Mr.@PekkaLundmark in which we discussed aspects relating to technology and leveraging it for the welfare of society. We also discussed India’s strides in building next-generation digital infrastructure," PM Modi tweeted.

Lundmark added in a tweet that it was an honour to meet Modi and talk how Nokia is assisting India with its 5G voyage, the next stage of its digital transformation, and its plans for 6G.

Nokia aims to surpass its rivals and lead the Indian market for private 5G networks that the Finnish telecom gear maker expects to become a $240 million market by 2027 with a deployment potential of more than 2,400 sites across the country.

"With more than 500 deployments worldwide, we have held a leading place in private networks. This industry is expanding quickly, and we observe a similar pattern in India as well," according to Nokia India Chief Marketing Officer Amit Marwah.

India is expected to invest between $240 million and $250 million in private wireless networks by 2027, according to the Nokia Mobile Broadband Index report published in February.

Marwah said the first few private networks are expected to start coming up in the next couple of quarters, mostly in the segments of transportation, manufacturing, healthcare, and utilities, which are set to see the largest share of enterprise investments.

The government is yet to finalise the strategy for giving out 5G airwaves for 5G private networks to enterprises through administrative allocation, for which it has to decide on the bands of the airwaves as well as pricing of the airwaves that will be given outside of an auction.

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