Indian mobile operator Bharti Airtel has signed a partnership agreement with Tata Group to implement 5G network services in India. Tata has developed an O-RAN based Radio & NSA/SA Core and has integrated an indigenous telecom stack, leveraging the group’s capabilities and that of its partners. This will be available for commercial development starting January 2022.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) brings its global system integration expertise and helps align the service to both 3GPP and O-RAN standards, as the network and equipment are increasingly embedded into software.
Airtel will pilot and deploy this indigenous service as part of its 5G rollout plans in India and start the pilot in January 2022, under the guidelines formulated by the Government of India.
These ‘Made in India’ 5G products are aligned to global standards, and inter-operate with other products based on standard open interfaces and those defined by the O-RAN Alliance. The 5G services, once commercially proven in Airtel’s network are expected to open export opportunities for India.
