Airtel Taps Nokia’s SRAN Solution to Gain Head-Start into the Billion-Dollar 5G Telecom Market in India

Airtel and Nokia sign a multi-year deal to enhance 5G readiness, and to improve the network capacity in the world’s second-largest telecom market.

The growing rise in the number of internet users, IOT users, and connected devices are putting enormous pressure on the present telecom infrastructure. Migrating from 4G to 5G would need a strategic overhaul of hardware and software connecting radio, fronthaul, baseband, backhaul, OAM, spectrum, and other components. Add to this migration, the perennial hazards of escalating operational costs, system complexity, and end-to-end security measures. It is a massive effort to go for the next phase of 5G – already tagged as the future of connectivity. Nokia and Airtel have come together to plan their future in the telecom business.

Airtel and Nokia are partnering to bring out the best possible platform for 5G networks launch in India. The Pan-India launch would benefit customers with low latency and faster speeds.

Airtel has signed a multi-year partnership agreement with the network equipment provider, Nokia. The deal would allow Airtel to leverage Nokia’s AirScale Radio Access, Baseband, and related Services. These would enhance Airtel’s 5G readiness across its current telecom market.

Bharti Airtel (Airtel) will deploy Nokia’s Single Radio Access Network (S.R.A.N.) solution across nine circles in India. Airtel plans to boost its network capacity in the 4G domain and improve customer experience. The SRAN solution would also roll-out preparedness blueprint for 5G connectivity, including the deployment of around 300,000 radio units across several spectrum bands. The spectrum includes frequencies of 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz, 2100 Mhz, and 2300 Mhz. The future-readiness would shape the outcome of this deal by 2022.

Recently, RootMetrics3 recognized Nokia as a market leader in LTE in terms of performance including network speed, network reliability, and data performance.

Migrating the Mobile Economy from 4G to 5G is a Massive Digitization Effort

India, the second-largest telecom market in the world, currently stares at a massive digitization effort. It is expected to reach 920 million unique mobile customers by 2025, including 88 million (just a shade below 10% of the total volume of mobile customers).

Reiterating the need to envision the “future of connectivity”, Rajeev Suri, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Nokia commented:

“This is an important agreement for the future of connectivity in one of the world’s largest telecoms markets and solidifies our position in India. We have worked closely with Bharti Airtel for many years and are delighted to extend this long-standing partnership further.”

Rajeev added, “This project will enhance their current networks and deliver best-in-class connectivity to Airtel customers but also lay the foundations for 5G services in the future.”

The 5G connections would push for a massive increase in demand for data services with traffic. 4G connections are already increasing by 47 percent in 2019 alone, according to Nokia’s MBiT Index 2020.

How Nokia Fits into India’s 5G Plans: 5G Era Between 2020-2025

Keeping in mind the rising volume surge in the number of mobile customers and internet data speed and connectivity demands, Nokia’s SRAN solution will help Airtel to address this growing demand by adding network capacity and ensuring a superior quality of experience to its customers.

Nokia SRAN Solution is a Future-Proof Investment for Telecom Players

Nokia’s SRAN solution helps operators to manage their 2G, 3G, and 4G networks from one platform reducing network complexity, increasing cost efficiencies, and future-proofing investment. Nokia will be the sole provider of SRAN in these 9 circles.

What SRAN Does?

• Single RAN reduces TCO by over 30%
• Modernization of legacy network pays back in 2-3 years
• Energy consumption is reduced on an average by 44%
• SRAN enables remote activation of new RAT in seconds

Airtel-Nokia 5G Deal Gives India the Head-start in Telecom Leadership

The deal will also include Nokia’s RAN equipment, including its AirScale Radio Access, AirScale BaseBand, and NetAct OSS solution, which will help Airtel to monitor and manage its network effectively. Nokia Global Services will also play a crucial role in the installation, planning, and deployment of the project, which will be executed via the Cloud-based Nokia Delivery Platform.

At the time of this announcement, Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India and South Asia) at Bharti Airtel, said:

“Airtel has consistently topped network performance charts in studies conducted by multiple global experts. We are committed to continuously invest in emerging network technologies to provide a best-in-class experience to our customers. This initiative with Nokia is a major step in this direction.”

Gopal added, “We have been working with Nokia for more than a decade now and are delighted to use Nokia’s SRAN products in further improving the capacity and coverage of our network as we prepare for the 5G era.”

Source: Nokia

(To share your insights on 5G deployments and the ‘future of mobile and internet services’, please write to us at sghosh@martechseries.com)