Nokia's CloudBand powers Airtel's VoLTE

Nokia announced that its CloudBand-based software products are powering Bharti Airtel's Voice over LTE (VoLTE) network in India. The cloud-based VoLTE solution, which has been deployed to cover all 22 telecom service areas in India, uses Commercial Off-the-Shelf IT hardware with cloud-based Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), which consumes much less power and space compared to the traditional 2G/3G Circuit Switched legacy core.

Airtel's network supports over 110 million customers, making it the largest cloud-based VoLTE network in India and the largest Nokia-run VoLTE in the world.

Nokia’s VoLTE solution enables Airtel to free up spectrum by ramping down its 3G network, allowing the operator to utilize the freed up spectrum to deploy 4G/LTE services for better speed and capacity.

Randeep Sekhon, CTO of Bharti Airtel, said: “We are delighted to deepen our strategic partnership with Nokia to build a future ready and agile network. The country’s largest open cloud based VoLTE network is a major milestone in Airtel’s journey. Our objective is to reap the benefits of cloud solutions to simplify our architecture and enable faster delivery of innovative services, ultimately delivering an enhanced customer experience.”