Airtel picks Ciena to triple network capacity to support 5G rollout

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel has deployed Ciena’s 600G and 800G photonic technology in metro cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Kolkata to increase fiber optic network capacity by upto three times to deliver enhanced 5G experience once the telco is ready to launch commercial 5G services in the country. The deployment will also support high-growth cloud applications while lowering the cost per bit.

Increasing optic fiber capacity is considered a significant step by the telecom industry in the run-up to rolling out 5G services considering that data being carried over the network will witness a huge spike triggered by connected devices, IoT, new 5G use cases, among others.