Bharti Airtel picks Ericsson’s 5G-ready Cloud Packet Core

Bharti Airtel has selected Ericsson to deploy its 5G-ready Cloud Packet Core in Airtel’s Pan India core network. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ericsson Cloud Packet Core is built on its virtual Evolved Packet Core (EPC) applications. Ericsson’s NFVI solution enables operators to deploy virtual telecom, Operations Support Systems (OSS), Business Support Systems (BSS), Information Technology and media applications.

Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel, says: “The Indian telecom market is witnessing massive surge in data usage. To address this demand and evolving consumption patterns, we are investing in innovative technologies and solutions to enable a superlative data experience for our customers in India. Ericsson is one of our key network partners and this deployment will help us enhance our packet core network which will not just scale up data capacity, but also make us edge cloud ready.”

Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Ericsson South East Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson, says: “Ericsson has been leading the virtual Evolved Packet Core market for several years now and our solutions in this area are gaining traction around the world. The technologies and solutions that we are providing Airtel are a key part of Ericsson’s 5G Core offering. The deployment of these technologies will help Airtel in meeting the rapidly evolving demands of customers and also enable swift deployment of new use cases and innovative services for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and Internet of Things (IoT).”