Airtel partners with Qualcomm for accelerating 5G services in India

Recently, Airtel became India's first telco to demonstrate 5G over a LIVE commercial network in the city of Hyderabad.

"Through Airtel's network vendors and device partners, Airtel will utilize the Qualcomm SG RAN Platforms to roll-out virtualized and Open RAN-based 5G networks. The flexible and scalable architecture of 0-RAN will create new opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses to become viable players in the deployment of 5G networks," the company said in a statement.

"In addition, Airtel and Qualcomm Technologies will collaborate to enable a wide array of use cases, including 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) that is designed to deliver broadband connectivity at Gigabit speeds to homes and businesses," the company added.

This collaboration also aims to allow a faster rollout of broadband services in a cost effective and expeditious manner across India for "last mile" connectivity challenges that are becoming increasingly important in today's remote, mobile-first society.

Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel said, "Airtel has been a pioneer of new technologies and our networks are fully ready for 5G. We are delighted to have Qualcomm Technologies as a key technology provider in our journey to roll-out world-class 5G in India. With Airtel's integrated service portfolio and Qualcomm Technologies' SG leadership, we will be well placed to usher India into the next era of hyper-fast and ultra-low latency digital connectivity."