Idea Cellular partners with Nokia to deploy cloud-native core technology in Delhi

India's third largest telecom operator Idea Cellular has joined hands with Nokia to deploy the company's cloud-native core technology in Delhi.

The Nokia technology will allow Idea to run both data and voice services on a common cloud platform, significantly reducing operational cost and time-to-market and providing a better quality of service for its subscribers.

"As India prepares to define its path to 5G, we at Idea are building the foundation by adding Nokia's cloud core capabilities. This deployment will allow us to deliver a best-in-class network experience to our subscribers and significantly reduce the time required to introduce new services," Anil Tandan, Chief Technology Officer at Idea said.

Part of Nokia's AirGile portfolio, a modular software architecture built with cloud-native products and capabilities, Nokia's cloud core brings Idea both packet and voice core on a common cloud platform.

Nitin Dahiya, head of the Idea customer team at Nokia, said: "Our cloud-native core solutions allows Idea to address the growing demand for both data and voice services to continue to evolve our business model and services. It further leverages the advantages of Nokia's AirGile portfolio, to add flexibility and agility to the network. It is our privilege to partner with Idea in its journey towards digitalization."

Furthermore, adaptation to a Nokia cloud core will enable Idea to rollout new deployments, scale faster and adopt a delivery model that meets customer demands for enhanced mobile broadband, improved latency, and accelerated time-to-market for new services.

Driven by demand for a unified infrastructure, Nokia's proven cloud-native Cloud Packet Core solution, including its Cloud Mobility Manager, and Cloud Mobile Gateway deployed on CloudBand, are key enablers in Idea's transformational journey from bare-metal to a cloud core architecture, Nokia further said in a statement.