Bharti Airtel is strengthening its partnership with the Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson. The telco has renewed its contract with Ericsson for pan-India managed network operations. As reported by ET Telecom, the new three-year deal will focus on Ericsson’s Operation Engine during 2020. Also, Bharti Airtel will deploy the latest automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies to enhance the mobile network experience and customer experience. Nunzio Mirtillo, who is the Head of Ericsson South East Asia, Oceania and India stated that the agreement shows the continued confidence in Ericsson’s products and end-to-end solutions in Bharti Airtel’s IT and network operations.
Airtel Will Fulfil Data Requirement Using New Technologies
Randeep Sekhon who is the CTO of Bharti Airtel stated in a joint statement that Airtel is pleased to strengthen the partnership with Ericsson as a part of building a future-ready network which would offer a world-class experience to customers. Also, new technologies will help Airtel to cater to the emerging data requirements of customers in Digital India.
Ericsson Replaced Huawei in Airtel Rajasthan Circle
Airtel has been inclining towards Ericsson as it offers world-class technologies and competitive pricing. Airtel back in 2019 replaced Chinese telecom gear maker Huawei with Ericsson in its Rajasthan circle. The deal with Ericsson also focused on VoLTE development in Rajasthan circle. Airtel also offered a pan-India cloud packet core contract to Ericsson.
Airtel is Slowly Inclining Towards Ericsson for Network Expansion
Since the government has barred Chinese telecom gear makers from supplying equipment to state-owned telcos BSNL and MTNL, private telcos are slowly shifting towards alternative gear makers. Bharti Airtel is slowing reducing the dependency on Chinese telecom gear maker Huawei. The telco giant is planning to replace Huawei with Ericsson for its 4G network expansion and modernisation in Tamil Nadu Circle. If Bharti Airtel replaces Huawei, Ericsson will supply telecom gear in 8 telecom circles of Airtel whereas Huawei would just supply telecom gear in two circles. Telco giant Vodafone Idea is also sceptical about sourcing telecom equipment from Chinese telecom gear maker Huawei. As of Reliance Jio, the telco does not work with any Chinese telecom gear marker.
