Airtel To Enter 5G With Chip Giant Qualcomm In India

• On Tuesday Bharti Airtel said it has partnered with US chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. for its 5G rollout in India. This came shortly after Airtel’s demonstration of 5G services in Hyderabad over its live 4G network.

• It was said by Airtel that Qualcomm’s 5G RAN platforms will be leveraged, which runs on the cloud, and will rollout virtualized and Open-RAN 5G networks in India.

• Airtel, in a joint statement, stated “The flexible and scalable architecture of O-RAN will create new opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses to become viable players in the deployment of 5G networks”. No financial details were specified by Airtel during the joint statement.

• OpenRAN enables hardware and software to be dis-aggregated unlike conventional radio gears as a concept, allowing technology products from different suppliers to co-exist with the various software providers.

• OpenRAN was being eyed by various Indian telcos as a viable method to cut network-related costs and ring in more customization as they upgrade their networks to 5G technology.

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