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.
Bharti Airtel has entered into a strategic partnership with Tata Group to deploy Open-RAN-based 5G radio and core solutions, which the latter has developed locally.
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 Tata Consultancy Services (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,” MD & CEO (India and South Asia) Bharti Airtel Gopal Vittal, 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. With this, companies can get the hardware such as radio made from contract manufacturers and integrate it with the software based on OpenRAN.
The Sunil Mittal-led telco last year produced its own 4G small cells by collaborating with Altiostar and Sercom using the same approach. After seeing the success, the company now diverted its focus on just 5G gear, including radio, small cells, routers and massive Mimo.
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.
