Following hard on the heels of a Nokia-Vodafone Idea agreement announced earlier this week, tech giant Nokia and Indian operator Bharti Airtel say they are expanding their partnership with the deployment of Nokia’s Packet Core appliance-based and fixed wireless access (FWA) solutions.
The aim is to provide a better network experience for Airtel’s growing 4G/5G customer base.
The solution, the partners say, 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 needs 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 gen AI for service orchestration and assurance.
Nokia says its 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 already provides Bharti Airtel with 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).
