Expanding Airtel’s reach across India.Nokia has signed a multi-year contract with Bharti Airtel to deploy Nokia’s SRAN solution across nine circles in India. The move will enhance Airtel’s network capacity, particularly in 4G, by 2022.
About 300,000 radio units will be deployed across several spectrum bands, including 900Mhz, 1800Mhz, 2100Mhz, and 2300Mhz over the next few years.
These networks will lay the foundation for Airtel to launch 5G connectivity with their low latency and faster speeds across the country.
According to GSMA, India is the world’s second largest telecoms market and is expected to reach 920 million unique mobile customers, including 88 million 5G connections, by 2025.
Demand for data services is soaring with the country experiencing 47-percent increase in traffic in 2019. The Nokia SRAN solution will help Airtel to address this growing demand by adding network capacity and ensuring a superior quality of experience to its customers.
“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,” said Gopal Vittal, Managing Director and CEO (India and South Asia) of Bharti Airtel.
Rajeev Suri, President and Chief Executive Officer at Nokia, believes that the project will enhance Airtel’s current networks and deliver best-in-class connectivity to its customers.
Entelechy Asia 