Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson on Wednesday signed a deal with Bharti Airtel to deploy its 5G-ready Cloud packet core in the domestic telecom major’s network in the country.
Bharti Airtel will benefit from Ericsson’s market leading packet core network applications and functions. The deployment will consist of solutions like Ericsson virtual Evolved Packet Gateway (vEPG) that follow ETSI standards. The deployment will enhance capacity in Airtel’s network and enable the network to address the rapidly growing demand for high-speed data services.
Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel, says:
“The Indian telecom market is witnessing massive surge in data usage. To address this demand and evolving consumption patterns, we are investing in innovative technologies and solutions to enable a superlative data experience for our customers in India. Ericsson is one of our key network partners and this deployment will help us enhance our packet core network which will not just scale up data capacity, but also make us edge cloud ready.”
Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Ericsson South East Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson, says:
“Ericsson has been leading the virtual Evolved Packet Core market for several years now and our solutions in this area are gaining traction around the world. The technologies and solutions that we are providing Airtel are a key part of Ericsson’s 5G Core offering. The deployment of these technologies will help Airtel in meeting the rapidly evolving demands of customers and also enable swift deployment of new use cases and innovative services for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and Internet of Things (IoT).”
Ericsson Cloud Packet Core is built on Ericsson’s market leading virtual Evolved Packet Core (EPC) applications. Ericsson is dedicated to supporting customers on a smooth evolution from EPC to dual-mode 5G Cloud Core operations, 5G EPC and 5G Core.
Ericsson’s NFVI solution enables operators to deploy virtual telecom, Operations Support Systems (OSS), Business Support Systems (BSS), Information Technology and media applications with speed while keeping the total cost of ownership (TCO) low. The solution, which is evolved with edge computing and container management capabilities, optimizes the uptake of mobile broadband and provides support for network slicing and advanced IoT and enterprise services.
