Airtel, Tata Group team up for ‘Made in India’ 5G network solutions

CHENNAI: Bharti Airtel and the Tata Group have formed a new partnership that is poised to challenge Reliance Jio’s own 5G business with both companies announcing on Monday that they will jointly deploy a ‘Made-in-India’ 5G technology stack. The combine will also first run a pilot of the technology that will become available for commercial development in January 2022.

According to a joint statement, the Tata group’s software major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has developed an O-RAN (Open Radio Access Network)-based network solutions that include radio and core elements, and integrates an indigenous telecom stack. Airtel will pilot this technology and deploy it as part of its 5G network roll out in India. Once commercially proven, the technology will also open up export opportunities for India, they added.