The move will allow the telco to reduce the cost of 5G deployment as it uses the OpenRAN technology and is developed indigenously, analysts said.
The Sunil Mittal-led telco said that it will pilot and deploy this indigenous solution developed as part of its 5G rollout plans in India and start the pilot in January 2022.Airtel’s latest partnership is significant as it aims to counter Reliance Jio’s “made-in-India” pitch for the country’s 5G networks. Jio has also developed its own end-to-end telecom stack comprising radios and core technologies, which it is currently piloting in Mumbai and intends to commercially deploy once 5G spectrum is available commercially.The Sunil Mittal-led telco said that Tata Group has developed a ‘state of the art’ O-RAN based radio and NSA/SA core technology and has integrated a totally indigenous telecom stack, leveraging the Group own capabilities via
(TCS). This will be available for commercial development starting January 2022.Tata Group is also working with a number of start-ups and local companies for the R&D and local manufacturing in future. “We are delighted to join forces with the Tata Group to make India a global hub for 5G and allied technologies. With its world-class technology ecosystem and talent pool, India is well positioned to build cutting edge solutions and applications for the world,” Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India and South Asia) Bharti Airtel said in a statement.
Vittal said that the partnership will provide a massive boost to India becoming an innovation and manufacturing destination.
“As a Group, we are excited about the opportunity presented by 5G and adjacent possibilities,” N. Ganapathy Subramaniam from the Tata Group/ TCS said in a joint statement.
OpenRAN as a concept enables hardware and software to be dis-aggregated, unlike conventional radio gears, allowing technology products from different suppliers to co-exist with the various software providers.
Jio and Airtel are eyeing OpenRAN as a viable method to cut network-related costs and bring in more customisations as they upgrade their networks to 5G technology.
“Airtel‘s strategic partnership with Tata could allow it to reduce its cost of 5G deployment and thus help support the business case for 5G rollout, which has been challenging for operator’s globally. The partnership also aligns well with the government’s Make-in-India push,” Ashwinder Sethi, Principal at Management Consultancy Analysys Mason told ET.
ET previously reported that Airtel was in talks with local and multinational vendors to locally produce 5G gear and other wireline and wireless networking products.
To strengthen its make in India story, Bharti Enterprises Ltd had recently inked a pact to form a joint venture (JV) with Dixon to manufacture telecom and networking products.Airtel said that the ‘Made in India’ 5G product and solutions are aligned to global standards, and inter-operate with other products based on standard open interfaces and those defined by the O-RAN Alliance.
Tata Group company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), is bringing its global system integration expertise to bolster the 5G offering besides helping align the end-to-end solution to both 3GPP and O-RAN standards.
The 5G solutions, once commercially proven in Airtel’s diverse and brownfield network, will open export opportunities for India, which is now the second largest telecom market in the world, Airtel said in a statement.
