Nishad Ali, CEO, Teltonika India, in an interview shared with Future Mobility Media, emphasised trust, innovation, and local partnerships as key drivers in powering India’s digital transformation through advanced IoT solutions.
What’s kept you motivated as CEO of Teltonika India, and what’s been the biggest turning point in your journey here?
Teltonika’s journey in India has been quite an adventure. We first opened an India office back in 2008, but that initial attempt lasted only two years. We continued to serve our Indian partners, but remotely, from Lithuania. Then in 2017, we returned through a distributor partnership, and that’s when things really took off. During that period, we grew from zero to 70 people.
And it’s the people, really, who’ve kept me motivated. Every single day, I get to work with and watch our wonderful team solve new business problems for our partners using cutting-edge IoT technology. I feel there’s something incredibly energising about being a part of India’s digital transformation story.
The real turning point was when I realised that to truly grow and properly serve this market, we needed to be fully Teltonika. Not just a partnership or representation. In 2023, Teltonika incorporated its subsidiary company in India, helping us become the most possible local presence we can be, while having the full backing of our global expertise.
What have recent experiences taught you about leadership, especially in terms of building trust and navigating challenges with your team?
I went through quite an experience when we decided to establish Teltonika’s own subsidiary in India. Our previous distributors had registered a trademark under our name when they were our distributors. There was a mutual agreement to transfer this trademark, with compensation, as part of the business transition to the new entity. Unfortunately, it seems that someone misguided them about the potential value they could extract, and they got greedy. What should have been a happy, straightforward business turned into a long legal battle. The honourable High Court of Karnataka ultimately ruled that the trademark belongs to those who built it, and not to opportunists.
It’s one of the toughest experiences I’ve dealt with. But what it really taught me, and actually reassured me, is that any successful endeavour is about long-lasting relationships and trust. Leadership is having trust in your team, and your team having trust in you. It’s the same dynamic with partners, the 2-way trust. Initially, our team was shaken by the uncertainty. How could they not be? But what defines us is what we do after fear. They stood strong, as strong pillars of Teltonika India, with trust in the leadership and vision.
I’m incredibly grateful for their faith during those times, and now, after the storm, we stand together even stronger than before.
Teltonika has already made a few GOLD partners in India. What’s the big vision behind such partnerships?
At Teltonika, we grow with our partners. They bring their creativity and ideas to solve business problems, and we make the hardware and expertise that powers these innovative solutions. It’s a truly symbiotic relationship, together creating immense, real value.
Our vision is to reach larger markets through these strategic partnerships. Since launching our own entity in India last year, we’ve already seen considerable growth in our partner ecosystem. We’re always looking to be collaborators, not just distributors.
You’ve launched new products like the FTC305 GPS trackers and RUTX50 industrial Wi-Fi devices. Which one excites you the most for the Indian market?
On their own, both products are significant technological advancements. But while very impressive, what excites me the most is not the technology alone, but how it is used. Let me give you some context.
At the beginning of the 21st century, Teltonika T-BOX were a big disruptor. 25 years ago, we’re disrupting the telematics industry again with the FTC devices.
Our FTC series is our 5th generation of telematics devices, with exceptional capabilities in power consumption and accuracy. They come with features like dead-reckoning for overcoming GNSS signal dependency, a crucial innovation for Indian conditions.
TFT100, the predecessor of FTC305 has already been the connectivity backbone for many EVs in India. As the demand in the e-mobility segment kept increasing, we realised we should create a more sophisticated device that could carry the industry into the future. That’s what the FTC305 is: providing crucial data points from CAN and BMS systems. Currently, it’s available in LTE CAT1 and M1, with 2G fallback capability.
The other device you mentioned, the RUTX50, is a dual-SIM 5G industrial router. It’s one of our most popular products, already powering more than a dozen factories using state-of-theart private 5G networks.
But the beauty is in the fact that the same device can solve very different problems. For example, a leading hospital brand is using the RUTX50 to conduct remote robotic surgeries in ambulances with 5G.
Like I said, what excites me most isn’t just the technology itself, but the use cases. Seeing the kind of impact our technology can make is why we do what we do.
5G routers, Wi-Fi 6, Platform C, big tech shifts happening at Teltonika. How are you planning to use these to power India’s digital future?
India is the fastest-growing digital powerhouse, but our infrastructure must keep up with our ambitions. The demand for reliable, high-speed connectivity, without compromising cybersecurity, is growing by the day. You can see it in projects all over the country.
Our RUT200 series 4G routers are already used in some of our nation’s most important projects, from national highways to weather stations. These routers now deepen India’s capabilities by powering ultra-low latency use cases. One example is the Bengaluru Adaptive Traffic Control System, which uses AI-based cameras to optimise traffic flow.
By bringing in Wi-Fi 6, 5G, and intelligent platforms like RMS and Platform C, we’re proudly advancing India’s digital infrastructure goals with next-gen industrial-grade connectivity.
With Teltonika expanding its manufacturing in Lithuania, what’s the real advantage for your Indian customers?
The expansion in Lithuania, including the new PCB manufacturing plant and a dedicated factory for our networking product manufacturing, is just the beginning. The next step is global.
For Teltonika to grow, we need to focus outside the EU. India, in particular, has the potential to become as big as the entire EU market. We’re actively working on local manufacturing here, which would streamline the supply chain and reduce costs, not only for India but for customers across Asia.
Teltonika’s RutOS update brought new features like AWS IoT Core integration. How’s that helping businesses on the ground in India?
RutOS is the brain behind our networking devices. It’s built on OpenWrt and offers a user-friendly interface to manage and interact with Teltonika devices. That includes both locally and wirelessly through the Remote Management System. The latest release integrates AWS IoT Core, so users can onboard, diagnose, and manage devices at scale far more efficiently.
Apart from managing routers, the RMS on RutOS gives visibility and control over the entire connected ecosystem. This means you can even make changes in the configuration setup of peripheral devices. That’s what the engineers love.
You’ve often spoken about India’s IoT potential. What’s the biggest opportunity you see today, and what will it take to make it a reality?
I’m hesitant to point out a specific project because it might make the opportunity seem smaller than it actually is.
The beauty of India’s IoT opportunity is its scale and diversity. From something as simple as an Amul tricycle selling ice cream on the street ensuring it’s temperature, to the nationwide vision for GNSS-based tolling, everyone wants to bring their grid to the cloud.
At Teltonika, our global leadership and experience in aftermarket telematics make us the best positioned to handle both high-demand and high-scale deployments. We’ve proven it time and time again in projects around the world.
Our tech isn’t created just to pass the minimum bar for compliance. We deliver tech wherever there’s a need for real data and insight. That’s why I don’t think of opportunity in terms of any single project. We enter a market carrying this broader mission and philosophy.
The opportunity is everywhere, and we’ll make it a reality every time.
What’s the toughest part about launching new tech in India? How do you plan to crack it?
The biggest challenge is helping customers understand how new technology can bring tangible value to their businesses.
We’ve made it a priority to not only bring innovation to the industry but to build market capacity around these innovations. Because with anything truly innovative, you have to help the market see what’s possible, not just what’s available.
So we put in just as much effort on educating our partners and helping them invent the right use-cases. We show the technology’s practical applications and work closely with our partners on successful implementation.
Finally, what’s next for Teltonika India? Any big bets or bold moves on the horizon?
Although our brand has been in India for years, we’ve officially completed just one year as Teltonika IoT Group. Within this year, we’re already moving at Teltonika speed, with new projects and partnerships.
You’ll see new profit centres opening in the next few years, as well as meaningful progress toward local manufacturing.
For us, leadership isn’t about headlines. Looking back and taking accountability is as important as making announcements for the future. Which is why we treat the successful implementation of technology as our responsibility.
It’s the difference between a provider and a partner, a provider sells you something and moves on, whereas a partner is someone you can trust for the long run.
This mindset will guide our next chapter in India. ■
