Airtel, Qualcomm team up for 5G push in India

NEW DELHI: Telecom operator Bharti Airtel and US chipmaker Qualcomm announced collaboration for accelerating 5G in India.
Airtel recently became India’s first telco to demonstrate 5G over a live commercial network in Hyderabad city, underlining the company’s technology capabilities.
“Through Airtel’s network vendors and device partners, Airtel will utilize the Qualcomm 5G RAN Platforms to roll-out virtualized and Open RAN-based 5G networks. Airtel, as a board member of the O-RAN Alliance, is committed to driving the success of O-RAN and is working with Qualcomm Technologies to explore and implement the O-RAN approach for India,” according to a company statement.
The flexible and scalable architecture of O-RAN will enable new opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses to become viable players in the deployment of 5G networks, it added.
Open RAN or open radio access network architecture is an industry terminology for interoperability and standardisation of radio access network elements including products and software from various vendors.