Airtel signs 5G network deals with Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung

Bharti Airtel NSE -0.55 % has signed multi-year 5G equipment supply deals worth about $2.5 billion (more than Rs 19,750 crore) with Sweden’s Ericsson, Finland’s Nokia and South Korea’s Samsung to start deployment of the next generation networks from August.

While the partnership with Ericsson and Nokia has been long-standing, Samsung is the new addition, with India’s second largest telecom company officially shutting out Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE from its 5G deployments.