On Tuesday, Bharti Airtel and Nokia announced the signing of a multi-year deal to deploy the latter’s SRAN solution across nine circles in India. Pegged at close to $1 billion, the deal will help Airtel to enhance the capacity of its networks and improve customer experience.
Nokia’s SRAN solution helps operators manage their 2G, 3G, and 4G networks from one platform. It helps in reducing network complexity, increasing cost efficiencies, and future-proofing investment. In a statement, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO (India and South Asia) at Bharti Airtel, said: “We have been working with Nokia for more than a decade now and are delighted to use Nokia’s SRAN products in further improving the capacity and coverage of our network as we prepare for the 5G era.”
Nokia, on its part, said the deal includes Nokia’s Single Radio Access Network solution, AirScale Radio Access, Baseband, and related Services. The rollout, which will also lay the foundation for providing 5G connectivity in the future, will see approximately 300,000 radio units deployed across several spectrum bands, including 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz, 2100 Mhz, and 2300 Mhz, and is expected to be completed by 2022.
India currently is the second-largest telecom market in the world and is expected to reach 920 million unique mobile customers by 2025, which will also include 88 million 5G connections according to the GSMA.
