Airtel has selected Red Hat and IBM to build its telecom network cloud based on 5G

India: Bharti Airtel, one of the largest integrated telcos of India, has selected IBM and Red Hat as the basis for building new telco network cloud. In compliance with this agreement, Airtel will build analytics tools, enterprise services and next generation core network on top of this network cloud platform, which will be based on open standards.

Airtel plans to give its customers better experience through the new network cloud by improving network capacity, improving the availability, automating the service and scaling the network to the maximum. Its overall aim is to reduce latencies and improve the availability and automation of bandwidth, thereby enhancing the overall network quality and become more competitive against its rival Reliance Jio.

CTO at Airtel stated that, “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.”

VP at Red Hat said that, “Red Hat is providing innovative open source solutions to help Airtel improve flexibility and reduce development time, so they can stay competitive in the rapidly evolving telecommunications market. By adopting a more agile approach to network operations based on Red Hat's open hybrid cloud technologies, Airtel is building a future-ready platform to meet the evolving needs of its customers.”

According to TechSci Research, India is the second biggest telecom advertise in the world and the country is projected to have 920 million unique mobile subscribers by 2025, which will include 88 million 5G connections. Also, data traffic in the country increased by 47% in 2019 due to surge in 4G data consumption,  hence, Airtel considers this as an lucrative opportunity and the assistance from IBM and Red Hat, which have already served Vodafone Idea, will enable Airtel to monetize 4G besides preparing for 5G in the coming  years.

According to the published report by TechSci Research, “Global 5G Infrastructure Market, By Communication Infrastructure (Small Cell, Macro Cell, Radio Access Network (RAN) and Distributed Antenna System (DAS)), By Core Network Technology (Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) and Fog Computing (FC)), By Application (Healthcare, Automotive, and Others), By Company and By Geography, Forecast & Opportunities, 2014-2024”, global 5G infrastructure market is expected to reach USD33.14 billion by 2024 by growing at a CAGR of over 50% during the forecast period. Major factors driving the growth of the 5G infrastructure market include growing demand for high speed & better network coverage, growing adoption of IoT and big data analysis, surging demand for connected vehicles & devices across the globe and increasing investments by the governments. Furthermore, 5G is a key enabler for Internet of Things (IoT) as it offers a platform to connect several devices to the internet.

According to the recently published report by TechSci Research, “Global Voice over WiFi Market By Technology (CSFB, VolGA, SVLTE), By Voice Client (Integrated VoWiFi, Separate VoWiFi, Browser VoWiFi), By Device Type (Smartphone, Router, Wireless Modem, Others), By End User (Residential, Commercial), By Region, Forecast & Opportunities, 2025”, global voice over WiFi (VoWiFi) market is expected to witness robust growth during forecast period. With the increase in the number of internet users every year, almost every mobile communication is done via WiFi, consequently increasing its market share across the globe. Moreover, the VoWiFi market is also driven by the problem of the absence of WiFi coverage indoors. Additionally, the users tend to shift to VoWiFi, when they face poor connectivity issues inside offices, homes, shops, etc., as it ensures convenient calling.