Nxtra by Airtel builds hyper scale data center in Kolkata

Nxtra by Airtel, which is a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, has begun construction on a new hyper-scale data centre in Kolkata. 

The project aims to be the largest data center in east India when it enters service in 2024, representing an investment of Rs 600 Cr. The 25 MW facility in Kolkata at New Town will be a green facility, sourcing clean energy for its operations since its inception. Once ready, it will be Nxtra’s 1st large-scale facility in east India in addition to its already existing 12 large and 120 edge facilities across India, further cementing Nxtra’s position as the nation's largest network of data centres. 

“Nxtra and Airtel are delighted to lead West Bengal's transition into a digital-first economy and would like to thank the state government for their unstinting support. We believe that there is immense potential in the region, our state-of-the-art, carrier-neutral, hyper-scale data centre will not only serve West Bengal but the entire eastern region including north-east and our neighbouring countries, said Mr. Rajesh Tapadia, Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer, Nxtra by Airtel.

Nxtra by Airtel will invest over Rs 5000 cr over the next four years to expand its capacity by 3X to over 400 MW. The company has already invested and partnered with eight organisations to develop renewable energy power plants across India to source more than 180,000 MWh of renewable energy. Nxtra has the ambition to reach net zero by 2031. 

https://www.nxtra.in

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Airtel surpasses first 1 million 5G customers in 30 days

Just one month since launching its 5G service,  Bharti Airtel crossed the 1 million unique 5G user mark on its network. 

Earlier this month, Airtel announced the advent of its 5G services in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi. The services in these cities are getting rolled out in a phased manner as the company continues to construct its network and complete the roll out.

Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel, said “These are early days but the response from customers have been very encouraging. Our network is being built every day even as all 5G devices are now capable of working on the Airtel 5G Plus network barring a few exceptions which should also be done in the coming weeks. We will continue to advance our network with a vision to connect the entire country.”

Google to invest up to $1 billion in Bharti Airtel

Friday, January 28, 2022    

Google will invest up to US$1 billion in a partnership with Bharti Airtel. The agreement includes an investment of US$700 million to acquire 1.28% ownership in Airtel and up to US$300 million toward potential multi-year commercial agreements.The companies will focus on India-specific network domain use cases for 5G and other standards. Airtel is already using Google’s 5G-ready Evolved Packet Core & Software Defined Network platforms, and plans...

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Aviat wins E-ban radio contract with Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel has contracted Aviat Networksfor wireless multiband radio solutions.

Airtel will deploy Aviat's all outdoor WTM 4800 E-Band and Multi-Band solutions to significantly expand the capacity of their microwave backhaul network.

Aviat's Multi-Band vendor agnostic feature enables traffic aggregation from multiple links which in turn improves network congestion and gives better speeds to customers. Aviat Networks will also undertake maintenance and deployment as part of the roll out. Airtel will deploy unique dual channel E-Band radio to augment its existing installed microwave network as well as new greenfield links in support of accelerated 5G network build out.

Speaking about the agreement, Randeep Sekhon, Airtel's Chief Technology Officer said, "We are delighted to partner with Aviat Networks. Their cutting-edge E-Band and Multi-Band radio solutions are a good fit with our network capabilities, which combined with their strengths in delivery and supply chain will enable Airtel deliver seamless 5G experience to customers across India in record time."

Pete Smith, CEO Aviat Networks said, "We are delighted to be able to support Airtel's 5G service deployment. India is one of the fastest and largest growing 5G markets in the world and Aviat's product capabilities will significantly lower the total cost of ownership and our delivery infrastructure will enable faster roll out."

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Qwilt to provide content delivery for Airtel India

Qwilt announced a non-exclusive partnership with Bharti Airtel to improve the quality of live streaming, video-on-demand (VoD) and all other media delivery to its over 400 million subscribers throughout India. 

The partnership sees Airtel launch its own content delivery service, Airtel Cloud’s Edge CDN, across India based on Qwilt’s technology and become the largest service provider to date to deploy Qwilt’s Open Edge Cloud solution. Qwilt’s Open Edge Cloud enables Airtel to establish a massively distributed layer of content caching resources that deliver streaming media and applications from the closest possible location to subscribers. Each low-cost edge server can be utilized by other virtual network function (VNF)-based services making it cost-effective enough to distribute throughout the service provider’s access network. The partnership allows Airtel to scale up very rapidly as viewer demand increases.

Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business, said: “Airtel is India’s leading provider of telecommunications services. As we get ready to launch 5G services we anticipate a significant increase in data consumption across major cities. Airtel Cloud’s Edge CDN, based on Qwilt’s technology, will substantially increase our ability to reliably deliver high-quality live and VoD streaming throughout India. We already have relationships with 16+ content providers across Indian states and we look forward to working with others looking to serve in this region so they can also enjoy the benefits of Airtel’s unique service offering across India.”

Alon Maor, CEO, Qwilt, said, “Airtel is a tremendously exciting addition to our global ecosystem of service providers, and we are delighted to power a unique content delivery service offering in India. Our edge architecture provides a new economic model for streaming delivery, in which Airtel Cloud’s Edge CDN plays a central role in the end-to-end value chain. This announcement underscores the momentum we are gathering as we realize our ambition to build the world’s highest performing edge delivery network.”

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Singtel to sell a 3.3% stake in Airtel back to Bharti Telecom

Singtel will sell a 3.3% direct stake in regional associate Airtel to Bharti Telecom, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Singtel,

The sale will unlock approximately S$2.25 billion as part of the Singtel Group’s capital recycling strategy. After this transaction, the Singtel Group is expected to own an effective stake of 29.7%, which is estimated to be worth S$22 billion. This comprises a 19.2% indirect stake through Bharti Telecom and a 10.5% direct stake.

Mr Arthur Lang, Singtel's Group Chief Financial Officer, said, "As long-term strategic investors and partners, the value of our stakes in our regional associates has risen substantially over the years but has not been properly reflected in our share price. This sale in Airtel will be our first ever and seeks to address this gap by illuminating the sizeable value of our holdings in Airtel. It is also part of our capital management approach to take monetisation opportunities that allow us to increase our return on invested capital and enhance total shareholder returns. With this transaction, we will raise over S$2 billion which will help to fully meet the Group’s needs for 5G and growth initiatives in the next few years, and put us in a strong position to grow our dividends in a sustainable way in line with our dividend policy.”

https://www.singtel.com/about-us/media-centre/news-releases/singtel-to-unlock-s-2-25-billion-from-divestment-of--3-3--direct

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Airtel deploys Ciena 600G and 800G

Bharti Airtel is rolling out 600G and 800G optical infrastructure in India’s largest metros – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Kolkata – using Ciena's platforms. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Airtel has implemented a self-optimizing network design using an advanced C&L-band infrastructure with Layer 0 control plane with Ciena’s 6500 Reconfigurable Line System (RLS). 

Airtel is also using Ciena’s Liquid Spectrum PinPoint OTDR software analytics to proactively localize, troubleshoot, and rapidly repair fiber fault conditions. Additionally, to maximize efficiency of the network and allow for quick turn up of new high-bandwidth services, Airtel has deployed WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optics along with Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller.

Randeep Sekhon, CTO of Bharti Airtel said, “Airtel was the country’s first telco to demonstrate live 5G service over a commercial network. As we work to deploy 5G more widely, Ciena plays an integral role in providing an agile network foundation to satisfy our customers’ dynamic requirements.”

dRyan Perera, Vice President and General Manager, Ciena India said, “The future of data consumption across India is at the edge – in homes, trains, hospitals, automobiles, factories and many other mission-critical environments. By investing in its metro network with Ciena’s industry-leading technology, Airtel is ideally positioned to support the booming digital economy.”

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Mavenir and Airtel demo O-RAN RIC

Bharti Airtel and Mavenir demonstrated an O-RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) that makes use of advanced machine learning algorithms to optimize network performance. This demonstration showed RIC in action, ingesting configuration data and performance metrics from a demonstration RAN, and iteratively optimizing the configuration parameters to achieve improvement in key performance indicators. The target objective function is configurable by the operator, guiding the optimization process to meet potentially dynamically changing business requirements at runtime. Scope of demonstration also includes O-RAN O1 interface testing of Mavenir Non-RealTime RIC.

The demo occurred at the recent Global O-RAN ALLIANCE Plugfest hosted by Airtel.

Pardeep Kohli, President and CEO Mavenir, said, “We are excited to partner with Airtel in the first global O-RAN plugfest event that enables re-thinking of traditional network deployment models.”

“We are delighted to partner with the global O-RAN community. Our engagement with Mavenir for this successful demonstration is yet another step forward towards building 5G systems with open network architecture,” said Randeep Sekhon, CTO at Bharti Airtel.

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Airtel picks Ribbon's Neptune for Packet Transport

Bharti Airtel will deploy Ribbon Communications' 5G-Native Neptune platform to enhance its mobile backhaul transport capabilities. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ribbon's 5G-native Neptune solution will be deployed throughout Bharti Airtel's India network, providing high capacity, low latency and real time programmability. The Neptune platform enables a powerful, efficient multi-layer next-generation network solution for a seamless evolution to future 5G services. The platform will be controlled, managed and automated by Ribbon's cloud-native Muse system, which provides Airtel with an integrated machine-to-machine ecosystem for end-to-end automated service fulfillment and assurance as well as automated migration from the existing network to the modernized one. 

"Ribbon has been a trusted partner since 2004, and their proven track record gives us confidence that they will successfully manage this upgrade. This compact, robust IP/MPLS-Access solution from Ribbon will both serve our current needs and make the Airtel network 5G ready," said Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel.

"5G will unleash a significant array of new applications and services that users around the world will benefit from," said Bruce McClelland, CEO of Ribbon Communications. "We are honored to have been selected by Bharti Airtel for this critical upgrade and look forward to further expanding our relationship while supporting their pioneering vision for the future."  

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India's Airtel renews managed services contract with Ericsson

Bharti Airtel =has renewed its agreement with Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) to provide pan-India managed network operations through Ericsson Operations Engine.

The three-year deal will see Airtel launching Ericsson Operation Engine during 2020. Ericsson will deploy the latest automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to enhance Airtel’s mobile network performance and customer experience. Ericsson will also manage Airtel’s network operations center and field maintenance activities across India. Ericsson will also provide Network Optimization Services, combining multi-vendor networks expertise with its state-of-the-art machine learning/AI-enabled Cognitive Software Suite. This will deliver a better customer experience and ensure a superior return from Airtel’s deployed network assets.

The agreement builds on the 25-year collaboration between Ericsson and Airtel in India.

Randeep Sekhon, Chief Technology Officer, Bharti Airtel, says: “We are pleased to strengthen our deep partnership with Ericsson as part of our vision to build a future ready network that enables world-class experience for our customers. We are confident these new technologies will enable us to serve the emerging data requirements of customers in a digitally connected India.”

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Airtel picks IBM and Red Hat for open hybrid cloud network

Bharti Airtel has selected IBM (nd Red Hat to build its new telco network cloud, which will be based on open standards and designed for new digital services.

The project uses Red Hat OpenStack Platform for all network workloads and Red Hat OpenShift for newer containerized workloads. It will also tap into Red Hat's ecosystem of network OEMs. In the future, Airtel's open hybrid cloud platform is expected to help enable new revenue streams with the on-boarding of third-party services including gaming, remote media production and enterprise services. By embracing IBM and Red Hat's hybrid cloud technology all the way to the network edge, Airtel aims to achieve improvement in time-to-market of services, reduction in operating expenses and reduced capital expenses.
 
"As part of our endeavor to build a 5G ready network for India's requirements, we are pleased to collaborate with IBM and Red Hat in our cloud journey," said Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel. Our goal with this powerful, seamless horizontal approach is to make our network future ready and enable Airtel to efficiently serve the massive surge in data consumption. The hybrid cloud architecture will resonate with our customer-obsession by providing improved flexibility, network stability and performance and bringing agility and automation in our network operations."

"Through its collaboration with IBM and Red Hat, Airtel will be building a modern, innovative and more responsive network infused with automation and AI, that will provide the consistency and agility needed for today's rapidly changing marketplace," said Steve Canepa, Global Managing Director, Communications Sector and Worldwide Head of Telecommunications, Media & Entertainment Industry, IBM. "IBM is a valued collaborator to many of the world's largest and most innovative communications service providers like Airtel as they transform their networks into open and secure hybrid multicloud platforms and prepare for the 5G and edge computing era."

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Airtel India picks Ceragon to boost 4G capacity

Bharti Airtel has selected Ceragon Networks' wireless hauling products for additional 4G network expansions beginning first quarter of 2020. Ceragon is an existing supplier to Airtel. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Airtel is looking to increase 4G network capacity in urban areas and expand its coverage in rural regions as well as prepare for its future evolution to 5G. Ceragon said it is working closely with Airtel to pursue rapid deployment of its microwave radios, as best it can, considering India's recent temporary lockdown.

"As an established strategic partner of Airtel for over a decade, Ceragon delivers innovative technology, products and services that enable us to achieve quick and dynamic network deployments", said Randeep Sekhon, Chief Technology Officer of Airtel. "Ceragon's wireless hauling solutions and services allow us to quickly adapt to our customers' changing needs and deliver higher speeds with reliable, first-time-right rollouts." 

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Airtel rolls out LTE 900 in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

Airtel has begun rolling out LTE in the 900 Mhz spectrum band in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Airtel is already using 2300 Mhz (TD LTE) and 1800 Mhz (FD LTE) for its 4G network. The 900 Mhz deployment boosts in-building penetration. The carrier said it is also working on Massive MIMO and 4G Advanced and Carrier Aggregation to step up high speed network capacity and coverage.     

Recently, the company announced that it will expand its network in the Andhra Pradesh by rolling out 15,000 new sites and 3,000 km of optic fiber during FY 19 under its network transformation program – Project Leap.

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Bharti Airtel buys capacity on MENA Cable and TE North Cable Systems

Bharti Airtel reached an agreement with Telecom Egypt under which it will acquire IRUs (Indefeasible Right of Use) on Middle East North Africa Submarine Cable (MENA Cable) and TE North Cable Systems.

Specifically, Airtel gets the right to use fiber pairs on MENA Cable from Egypt to India with access to Saudi Arabia and Oman, and other fiber pairs from Egypt towards Italy. It also extends beyond MENA Cable, where Airtel will get the right to use a fiber pair from Egypt to France on TE North along with capacities on SMW5 and AAE1 cable systems. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO – Airtel Business said, “The partnership with Telecom Egypt underlines our commitment to provide world-class service experience to our customers. The partnership including MENA Cable and TE’s network will be a good addition to our global network portfolio and provide us with a high quality and diversified new route to Western Europe and the rest of the world. ”

Ahmed El Beheiry, Chief Executive Officer of Telecom Egypt commented, “Telecom Egypt’s global network was built over the years through investments in consortiums as well as private international submarine cable systems. Our reach and position as an international hub with tens of Tbps lit capacity, makes us the partner of choice for Euro-Asian and Euro-African transit traffic. Telecom Egypt signed the agreement with OTMT to acquire MENA Cable with the aim of capitalizing on the growing traffic from India and Saudi Arabia to Europe and to obtain a new gateway to Europe through Italy. We are pleased to be able to sign the MoU with Airtel as well as to be able to bundle MENA’s assets with existing assets of the TE network. We aim to come back to the market with more details on the MoU and its financial impact once the deal is closed.”

Telecom Egypt acquires MENA cable for $90 million

Saturday, June 02, 2018  Egypt, Mergers And Acquisitions, Subsea  

Telecom Egypt announces that its 50% owned subsidiary, Egyptian International Submarine Cables Company (EISCC), will acquire the Middle East and North Africa Submarine Cable (MENA) for a total value of US$90 million from Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding S.A.E.

Telecom Egypt said the decision to acquire MENA Cable comes in line with its strategy to achieve a short-term return from this investment and to preserve the revenue stream of the submarine cable systems.

MENA Cable is licensed in Egypt and Italy to operate a submarine telecommunications system connecting Europe to the Middle East and South East Asia.

"The decision to acquire MENA Cable is one of the most important steps towards implementing the company’s strategic plan to ensure the sustainability of submarine cable revenues and reinforce the contribution of the USD revenue stream. The new cable will add to Telecom Egypt’s network of submarine cables fortifying TE’s network offering to the maximum number of routes between India and Europe as well as add a new gateway to Europe through Italy," stated Ahmed El Beheiry, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

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