Airtel To Build 5G Ready Cloud Network; Partners With IBM And Red Hat

Despite the fact that the Department of Telecommunication is likely to move 5G spectrum auction to 2021, Airtel is building its 5G-ready cloud network. The telco has also partnered with IBM and Red Hat to build the network. This move is likely to give an upper hand to Airtel against India's largest telecom operator Reliance Jio.

The new partnership will help Airtel to build next-generation networks for consumers and enterprises. "Our goal is to make our network future-ready and enable Airtel to efficiently serve the massive surge in data consumption," Randeep Sekhon, chief technology officer at Bharti Airtel, said.

On the other hand, both IBM and Red Hat are offering similar services to Vodafone-Idea, where the latter is working on common cloud architecture. "The creation of this cloud will help Airtel create new services and capabilities and will also enable it to monetize their 4G much faster besides preparing for 5G," Sandip Patel, General Manager- IBM India/South Asia was quoted by Economic Times. Adding to that, "A lot of this will also help Airtel to be more competitive with reduced capex and opex."

However, the companies have not declared the financial details about the deal, but it is expected to help Airtel to good connectivity and bandwidth to customers.

Airtel Join Hands With Nokia To Improve Its 4G Network In Rural Areas

Recently, Airtel announced that it is planning to invest $1 billion in the 4G expansion. Airtel has also partnered with Nokia to deploy 3000, 000 radio units in 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz, 2100 Mhz, and 2300 Mhz. The 4G deployment will help Airtel to offer good 4G speed in the country.

Besides, the partnership will prepare the telco for the 5G network. This is the second time that the telco has joined hands with Nokia. Earlier, Airtel invested $500 million in the 4G expansion in Bihar and Gujarat.

Almost all companies are partnering with network gear makers to offer good connectivity during the lockdown so that people will get proper networks at this point in time. The demand for voice calling and mobile internet has increased a lot since March 25, and that's why operators are coming up with different strategies to fulfill the demand.