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.

NEW DELHI: 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,” Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India and South Asia) Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

Vittal said that the partnership will provide a massive boost to India becoming an innovation and manufacturing destination.

https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/airtel-partners-tata-group-to-deploy-indigenous-open-ran-5g-technology-in-india/83714108