In a strategic move to meet the escalating demands of India’s 5G landscape, Nokia has partnered with Bharti Airtel for the deployment of an optical transport network. This collaboration aims to provide Airtel with augmented capacity, heightened reliability, and cost efficiencies, ultimately translating into superior services for its customer base.
As part of this comprehensive deal, Airtel will leverage Nokia’s 1830 PSS-x OTN switches, strategically integrated into its National Long-Distance Network that interlinks major cities across India.With the impending rollout of 5G networks and an intensified push for widespread broadband connectivity, Communication Service Providers (CSPs) are grappling with the imperative to fortify backhaul transport for denser 5G mobile networks.
The Nokia OTN solution is poised to empower Bharti Airtel in seamlessly upgrading its legacy transport switching infrastructure across its expansive network footprint. This upgrade is not just about meeting the surging traffic demands but also about enhancing overall transport capacity and bandwidth efficiency. By harnessing high-capacity OTN switching and incorporating additional spectrum, including the L-band wavelengths of fibre, Bharti Airtel is gearing up to deliver faster, more reliable broadband services and position itself for emerging use cases.
Chandan Kumar, Head of Optical Network Business Centre for Nokia India said, “As a world leader in OTN, our technology will help Airtel to increase the capacity and features of Bharti’s optical transport network to meet growing bandwidth demand driven by the enterprise and hyperscale segments. It will also provide the service level performance to meet the strict SLAs from Airtel customers”.