In line with the "Digital India" programme, Swedish communication services giant Ericsson on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with public sector telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to create a roadmap for 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments in the country.

The partnership will help both companies to work together on developing new 5G use cases, knowledge sharing on 5G technology concepts, industry and innovation trends including 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) standardisation progress.

"5G and IoT will enable new opportunities and create new ecosystems and through this association with Ericsson, we intend to take the lead in the development of these new technologies," Anupam Shrivastava, CMD BSNL said in a statement.

"We will test, learn and develop use cases that will help us meet the diverse needs of our customers in the future. 5G will also help create the backbone on which Digital India initiatives will be delivered," Shrivastava added.

The partnership will help BSNL to leverage Ericsson's 5G Center of Excellence established earlier this year at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT Delhi) to work on evaluating benefits of 5G technology in areas like rural connectivity, connected healthcare, industrial automation, public safety, video surveillance, energy and agriculture amongst others.

"We are proud to partner with BSNL to work on use-cases and scenarios for application of 5G technology and how it will help realise the Digital India vision," Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Market Area, South East Asia, Oceania and India at Ericsson said.

As per an Ericsson report, 5G enabled digitisation revenue potential in India will be $27.3 billion by 2026.

The Indian operators can generate additional revenue of $13 billion or half of the stated potential if they take up roles beyond being connectivity and infrastructure providers to become service enablers and service creators, Ericsson said.

The largest opportunity will be seen in sectors like manufacturing, energy and utilities followed by public safety and health sectors.

Some of the 5G use cases that could be implemented using the unique features of 5G technology include industrial control and automation, autonomous driving, safety and traffic efficiency services, hospital applications and medical data management, among others.