Nokia chosen to drive India’s largest cloud-based VoLTE network
Bharti Airtel selected Nokia’s CloudBand-based software products for its VoLTE (Voice over LTE) network in India.
This move has led the telecom giant to be the world’s largest cloud-based VoLTE network and the largest Nokia-run VoLTE in the globe, according to Airtel, which now supports over 110 million customers.
It is the largest in the globe because it also covers all of India’s 22 telecom circles. The solution for VoLTE given by Nokia is using 4G internet to place voice calls for better speed and capacity, as opposed to 2G or 3G connections that are widely used.
“Our objective is to reap the benefits of cloud solutions to simplify our architecture and enable faster delivery of innovative services, ultimately delivering an enhanced customer experience,” Randeep Sekhon, CTO of Bharti Airtel said in a statement.
In order to create revenue streams through new digital services, Nokia’s CloudBand infrastructure software will be installed. CloudBand is an open, accessible, flexible platform that will allow Airtel to adapt network capacity in accordance with changing consumption patterns in real-time and in a cost-efficient manner.
The foundation for 5G networks and delivering new digital services with a consistent and high-performing network for delivering improved customer experience, are some of the ways CloudBand can help Airtel.
“Nokia’s cloud software solutions will further strengthen Airtel’s solid 5G network foundation and transition to innovative digital solutions that are customer and experience centric,” said Bhaskar Gorti, President of Nokia Software and Nokia Chief Digital Officer.
Reports noted, “5G network was expected to be launched in India by late 2020 or early 2021, but it’s highly unlikely to happen before mid-2021.” Based on these insights, Ericsson noted that 5G will most probably be available in India starting from 2022.
In addition, the new deal allows Airtel to provide its mobile customers with faster and reliable call connectivity due to the network upgrades. This particular solution uses Commercial Off-the-Shelf IT hardware with cloud-based Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), which consumes much less power and space compared to the traditional 2G/3G Circuit Switched legacy core.