Bharti Airtel and Nokia expand core network collaboration to speed-up new 5G service delivery
Nokia and Bharti Airtel are
expanding their partnership with the deployment of Nokia's Packet Core
appliance-based and Fixed Wireless Access solutions for providing a better
network experience for Airtel's growing 4G/5G customer base. The solution will
help seamlessly integrate 5G and 4G technologies into a single set of servers.
Nokia's FWA will provide additional capacities for home broadband and
enterprise-critical application services. Airtel will use Nokia's automation
framework to realise zero-touch service launch and efficient lifecycle
management for core network functions to enhance its ability to deliver new
services faster while reducing network operational costs.
Using Nokia's converged Packet Core solution for 5G
standalone (SA) readiness, Airtel will continue its evolution toward advanced
5G and simplify its network architecture to meet the ever growing need of data
while reducing network operational costs. This will help Airtel optimise its
hardware footprint and reduce its cost per bit by utilising appliance-based
Packet Core gateways, while maintaining the rest of the network elements in a
cloud-native architecture.
The rollout covers network automation in a multi-year deal that
spans the majority of Airtel service regions across the country. The
collaboration entails advancing autonomous networks by utilising GenAI for
service orchestration and assurance.
"Nokia's innovative Packet Core deployment architecture
enables critical changes to our network quality and reliability for meeting the
fast-rising growth in customer data requirements. This rollout further
demonstrates our longstanding success in jointly collaborating to strengthen the
overall Airtel customer experience," said Randeep Sekhon, CTO of Airtel.
"Nokia and Airtel have a long-standing partnership and we are
pleased to bolster its 5G SA readiness. Airtel's use of Nokia's Packet Core to
build greater network agility and reliability demonstrates how we are both
helping customers solve problems and furthering Nokia's leadership position in
the Core space, in India and around the world," said Raghav Sahgal,
President of Cloud and Network Services at Nokia.
Nokia's solution provides a pre-integrated and modular
server-based configuration for increased flexibility to support a wider range
of business and operational deployment models. This allows Airtel to better
target new customers and create new revenue streams.
Nokia's Packet Core solution for Fixed Wireless Access enables
additional capacity for home broadband and enterprise-critical application
services for the delivery of extreme bandwidth and capacity to customers.
Nokia has an expansive core footprint in Bharti Airtel's network
and already provides several other core technologies including VoLTE (Voice
over LTE), HSS (Home Subscriber Server), HLR (Home Location Register), UDM
(Unified Data Management) and VoNR (Voice over New Radio), along with MANO
(automated Management & Orchestration).
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