Indian operator Bharti Airtel has signed a partnership agreement with China Mobile. Under the terms of the deal, Airtel and China Mobile will work towards the growth of the LTE ecosystem and evolving mobile technology standards. The two operators will also develop a joint strategy for procurement of devices that include Mifi, smart phones, data cards, LTE CPEs and USIM.
China Mobile and Airtel intend to share relevant network as well as product knowledge (specifically for new technologies like 4G), best practices and technical learnings to enable delivery of services to customers. Airtel and China Mobile will partner on the development of technical standards and inter-operability testing.
Additionally, as founders of Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI), China Mobile and Airtel will cooperate on standards and products development, and promoting a robust ecosystem to accelerate the commercialization of TD-LTE and evolving 4.5G/ 5G technologies.
Both companies will work together for understanding and sharing testing and validation practices (including network equipment, features and new releases etc.) and also jointly conduct proof of concepts as well as trials. China Mobile and Airtel will also aim to bring in cost efficiencies by driving synergies in their procurement strategies, among other collaborative efforts included in this MoU agreement.
