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Bharti Airtel on Monday announced that it will enter a strategic partnership with TCS to implement 5G in India. In a press statement, Airtel said Tata Group has developed a ‘state of the art’ O-RAN based Radio & NSA/SA Core. Also, the telco said that Tata has integrated a totally indigenous telecom stack. Tata Group will make the stack commercially available starting January 2022.
Airtel Tackles Jio's Make in India with TCS for 5G in India
The statement added that TCS will help align the end-to-end solution to both 3GPP and O-RAN standards. Airtel said that that is possible because the network and equipment come increasingly embedded into software.
The telco has said that it will deploy the solution as part of its 5G rollout plans in India. The telco also said that it will start piloting the system in January 2022.
Interestingly, Bharti and TCS developed 5G products aligned with global standards, not Indian ones. The telco also said that the solutions can run over any product defined by the O-RAN Alliance. Airtel also said that this 5G solution might open export opportunities for India as well.
Notably, Reliance Jio has partnered with Qualcomm to manufacture 5G equipment in India. Both the companies have already developed a full 5G stack, in India. Bharti Airtel's move will surely counter the Make in India narrative that Jio had going on for it till now.
On the occasion, Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India and South Asia) Bharti Airtel said, “We are delighted to join forces with the Tata Group to make India a global hub for 5G and allied technologies". He added, "this will also provide a massive boost to India becoming an innovation and manufacturing destination".
Ganapathy Subramaniam from the Tata Group/TCS said, “as a Group, we are excited about the opportunity presented by 5G and adjacent possibilities. He added, "we are pleased to have Airtel as our customer in this initiative".
Incidentally, Airtel is also a Board member of the O-RAN Alliance. The telco is participating in the ongoing 5G trials and has a site live in Gurugram, operating on the mid-band. TCS is also one of the members of the O-RAN Alliance.