Airtel selects IBM and Red Hat to build 5G-ready open hybrid cloud network

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel has selected IBM and Red Hat to build its new 5G-ready telco network cloud to support core operations, monetise the telco’s pan-India 4G network with the help of new services and be more competitive against main rival Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Both IBM and RedHat will help Airtel build its next-generation core network, analytical tools and new consumer and enterprise services on top of this cloud platform based on open standards, the companies said in a joint statement Monday.

“Our goal with this powerful, seamless horizontal approach is to make our network future ready and enable Airtel to efficiently serve the massive surge in data consumption,” Randeep Sekhon, chief technology officer at Bharti Airtel, said in the statement.