Bharti Airtel inks multi-year pact with Ericsson for pan-India network

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel on Monday signed a multi-year strategic agreement with Ericsson where the Swedish giant will manage Airtel services across 4G, 5G NSA, 5G SA, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), Private Networks and Network Slicing.

The partnership will see Ericsson manage Airtel’s pan-India network through its state-of-the-art Network Operations Centre (NOC) while scaling FWA and Network Slicing across the country.

“We are excited to enhance our strong collaboration with Ericsson as we pursue our goal of creating a future-ready network that delivers an exceptional experience for our customers. We believe that these innovative technologies will empower us to meet the growing data demands of consumers in a digitally connected India,” said Randeep Sekhon, CTO of Bharti Airtel.

The agreement underscores Ericsson’s leadership in managed services and reaffirms its commitment to delivering exceptional value to Airtel customers.

“This milestone agreement with Bharti Airtel reinforces our commitment to helping Airtel deliver the best possible experience for its customers. By leveraging Intent-Based NOC Operations, we will enable Airtel to unlock wider service diversification to meet customer needs, thereby enabling new revenue opportunities for Airtel,” said Andres Vicente, Head of Market Area Southeast Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson.

Ericsson’s longstanding partnership with Bharti Airtel, spanning over 25 years, encompasses multiple generations of mobile communications technology. Notably, this announcement follows closely on the heels of Bharti Airtel’s collaboration with Ericsson on 5G Core to drive 5G evolution.

Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 550 million customers in 15 countries across India and Africa. The company also has its presence in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka through its associate entities.

Last month, Bharti Airtel and Google announced a partnership that brings Google One cloud storage subscription service for Airtel customers, helping address the mounting challenge of limited device storage.

All postpaid and Wi-Fi customers will get access to six months of 100 GB Google One cloud storage at no extra cost. They will also be able to share this storage with up to five additional people.

IANS