CHENNAI: Bharti Airtel and the Tata Group have formed a new partnership that is poised to challenge Reliance Jio’s own 5G business with both companies announcing on Monday that they will jointly deploy a ‘Made-in-India’ 5G technology stack. The combine will also first run a pilot of the technology that will become available for commercial development in January 2022.
According to a joint statement, the Tata group’s software major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has developed an O-RAN (Open Radio Access Network)-based network solutions that include radio and core elements, and integrates an indigenous telecom stack. Airtel will pilot this technology and deploy it as part of its 5G network roll out in India. Once commercially proven, the technology will also open up export opportunities for India, they added.
Open RAN is designed around interoperability requires the standardisation of radio access network elements. Gopal Vittal, Chief Executive Officer (India and South Asia) Bharti Airtel said that India is well positioned to build cutting edge solutions and applications for the world with its world-class technology ecosystem and talent pool. N Ganapathy Subramaniam from the Tata Group/ TCS said the group was “excited about the opportunity presented by 5G and adjacent possibilities”.Airtel was India’s first telco to demonstrate 5G over a live network in Hyderabad.