Indian multinational telecommunications services company Bharti Airtel will collaborate with the semiconductor giant Intel for 5G network development by leveraging vRAN / O-RAN (virtualised/ open radio access network) technologies.
The collaboration is part of Airtel’s 5G roadmap for India as it transforms its networks to allow its customers to reap the full possibilities of the hyperconnected world where Industry 4.0 to cloud gaming and virtual / augmented reality become an everyday experience.
Bharti Airtel and other telecom operators are at present conducting 5G trials in select cities across India. It is driving the ‘Make in India’ initiative that aims to foster a broad ecosystem of home-grown telecoms network technology in the country, and as such is developing some of the mobile network systems it plans to deploy in the future, particularly those based on Open RAN blueprints.
Airtel will deploy Intel’s latest 3rd gen Xeon Scalable processors, FPGAs and eASICs, and Ethernet 800 series across its network to build a solid foundation for rolling out wide-scale 5G, mobile edge computing, and network slicing.
"As members of the O-RAN Alliance, Airtel and Intel will work closely for developing a range of Make in India 5G solutions and enabling world-class telecom infrastructure in India through local partners," the company said.
"Airtel is delighted to have Intel as a part of its rapidly expanding partner ecosystem for 5G. Intel's cutting-edge technologies and experience will contribute immensely to Airtel's mission of serving India with world-class 5G services. We also look forward to working with Intel and home-grown companies to unlock India's potential as a global 5G hub," Bharti Airtel Chief Technology Officer Randeep Sekhon said.
