Bharti Airtel and Tata Group have announced a strategic partnership for implementing 5G network solutions for India.
This is the first time that an operator has tied-up with an Indian partner for development of RAN for 5G network.
Globally, Airtel has tie ups with global players such as Altiostar, Mavenir and Rakuten, which are part of the O-RAN alliance.
About deal
As per the partnership, Airtel will pilot and deploy this indigenous solution as part of its 5G rollout plans in India and start the pilot in January 2022, the company said in a statement issued on Monday.
Tata Group has developed a O-RAN based Radio & NSA/SA Core and integrated a totally indigenous telecom stack, leveraging the Group capabilities and that of its partners.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) brings its global system integration expertise and helps align the end-to-end solution to both 3GPP and O-RAN standards, as the network and equipment are increasingly embedded into software.
Joint Statement
“Tata Group has developed a ‘state of the art’ O-RAN based Radio and NSA/SA Core and has integrated a totally indigenous telecom stack, leveraging the Group capabilities and that of its partners. This will be available for commercial development starting January 2022.”
Comment from Airtel
Gopal Vittal , “We are delighted to join forces with the Tata Group to make India a global hub for 5G and allied technologies.
With its world-class technology ecosystem and talent pool, India is well positioned to build cutting edge solutions and applications for the world.
This will also provide a massive boost to India becoming an innovation and manufacturing destination.”
Comment from TCS
Ganapathy Subramaniam, “As a Group, we are excited about the opportunity presented by 5G and adjacent possibilities.
We are committed to building a world-class networking equipment and solutions business to address these opportunities in networking space.
We are pleased to have Airtel as our customer in this initiative.”
Analyst
According to analysts tracking the sector, this is a big move to counter Reliance Jio, which is developing indigenous solutions for 5G and has partnered with Qualcomm also.
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