Bharti Airtel, India’s 2nd biggest telco, has once again put its faith in Ericsson, the Swedish telecom gear maker, to upgrade its 5G network infrastructure with the deployment of Ericsson's secure, high-performing 5G Core network offerings to the benefit of Airtel's millions of customers and enterprises across India.

Airtel and Ericsson have been long-standing partners for over 25 years, covering almost every generation of mobile networks. This new agreement would transform the telco into a commercially live and full-scale 5G standalone network over time, bringing the high-end capabilities of 5G to its customers.

Scope of Work 

Under the agreement, Ericsson has been entrusted to deploy its Signaling Controller solution within Bharti Airtel's network as a first. Apart from this, Airtel will also expand to capitalize on Ericsson's 5G Standalone-enabled Charging and Policy solution, showcasing a strategic enhancement to Bharti Airtel's 5G monetization efforts. It will thus enable new business models for the telco flowing from its 5G network expansion.

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Airtel’s Transition to 5G Standalone 

Randeep Sekhon, CTO of Bharti Airtel, says, “Ericsson's enduring partnership with Airtel has entered an exciting new phase, marked by the deployment of Ericsson's 5G Core solutions to support Airtel's transition to 5G Standalone. This rollout will play a pivotal role in Airtel's long-term 5G strategy, boosting network capacity and enabling the delivery of innovative, differentiated services to customers.”

New Avenues through Network Slicing 

Andres Vicente, Head of Market Area, Ericsson, says, "This deployment is a significant step towards making Bharti Airtel’s network 5G Standalone ready and future-proof. Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G core enables monetization through network slicing-based services and network API exposure, unleashing new, innovative use cases for consumers and enterprises.”

Bharti Airtel is set on a journey to expand its network connectivity capabilities, continuously exploring new avenues to strengthen its network across the geography of India. This step by the telco will not only strengthen its network connectivity; it will also strengthen the telco’s financial standing as it sets on a journey to generate revenue through 5G connectivity.

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