India (Commonwealth) _ One of the top telecom providers in India, Bharti Airtel, has awarded Nokia a multibillion dollar deal to extend its 5G network. The sources indicate that the agreement with Airtel pertains to Nokia’s latest AirScale mobile radios, designed to reduce energy costs and facilitate the upgrade of an existing network to 5G Advanced.
Telecom companies like Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea have been investing billions of dollars to update their networks to 5G in India, the second-largest smartphone market in the world. As of June 2024, Bharti Airtel had more than 90 million 5G users in India. Only two Indian telecoms, Airtel and Reliance Jio, provide 5G services.
The Nokia-Bharti Airtel agreement demonstrates how fiercely telecom providers and equipment makers are competing in India’s 5G sector. The deal is a major comeback and consolidation of Nokia’s foothold in India, despite earlier setbacks and the pressure from competitors like Ericsson and Samsung. With India on the verge of a 5G revolution, the successful completion of this agreement could act as a model for future ones, hastening the rollout of 5G throughout the country.
With Bharti Airtel’s extensive market penetration and Nokia’s worldwide experience, this alliance is well-positioned to spur innovation, open up new opportunities, and propel economic growth. The strategic vision and teamwork displayed by Nokia and Bharti Airtel will surely spur additional developments and investments in India’s telecom industry as the 5G landscape continues to change.
Nokia and Bharti Airtel (Airtel) successfully concluded their first 5G non-standalone (NSA) Cloud RAN experiment in India in July 2024. The project backs Airtel’s plan to use high-performing networks to provide an exceptional customer experience. Higher degrees of service innovation, more network automation, flexibility, and effective resource scaling to serve end-user services are anticipated outcomes.
The experiment used a 3.5 GHz spectrum for 5G and 2100 MHz for 4G in an over-the-air setting. Commercial user devices were able to make successful data calls across Airtel’s commercial network, with a throughput of more than 1.2 Gbps. Using x86 hardware with a CaaS layer, the trial made use of Nokia’s RAN software for virtualized Distributed Units (vDU) and virtualized Centralized Units (vCU).
Additionally, the trial made use of Nokia’s L1 acceleration, which will allow for increased power efficiency and support Nokia’s anyRAN advantages of utilizing standard RAN software with the network’s specially designed component. This will enable common performance and functionality throughout the hybrid network.
In addition to supporting Airtel’s goal of introducing cloud networking advantages like scalability and agility to their network, the trial represents a major turning point in the company’s entire cloudification journey.
Bharti Airtel and Finland’s Nokia are negotiating a multibillion dollar deal for Nokia to supply 5G telecom equipment for the Indian mobile operator, which is growing its network, according to three reliable resources  with knowledge of the situation. Bharti Airtel has already awarded a multi-billion dollar contract to Swedish telecom equipment manufacturer Ericsson.
Companies like Airtel, Reliance’s Jio, and Vodafone Idea have been investing billions of dollars to update their networks to 5G in India, the second-largest smartphone market in the world.
Last year, their orders helped Ericsson and Nokia counteract the decline in U.S. consumer demand. However, following a spike in demand last year, the number of orders coming from India has drastically decreased.
According to the sources, the agreement with Airtel would be for Nokia’s newest AirScale mobile radios, which lower energy costs and facilitate upgrading an existing network to 5G Advanced. Nokia chose not to respond. Bharti Airtel did not reply right away. Nokia chose not to respond. Bharti Airtel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
One of the individuals described the possible Nokia deal as a “routine and ongoing arrangement” with network vendor partners. On Thursday, Nokia will release its third-quarter financial results. Due mostly to a downturn in Indian demand, Nokia reported an 18% decline in net sales in the second quarter.
According to another source, Airtel is in discussions with Samsung about purchasing 5G equipment in addition to Nokia and Ericsson. Samsung has been working to expand its network equipment business, but it hasn’t kept up with Ericsson and Nokia yet. In 2022, Samsung secured its first 5G contract with Airtel. India has prohibited its mobile operators from utilizing Huawei’s 5G telecom equipment.
