Airtel renews pact with Ericsson for pan-India managed services

Telecom major Bharti Airtel has renewed its agreement with Swedish gear maker Ericsson to provide pan-India managed network operations, the two companies announced on Tuesday.

The three-year deal will see Airtel launching 'Ericsson Operation Engine' this year.

The agreement covers nationwide Artificial Intelligence-driven managed services, network and IT automation for Airtel's India mobile operations.

Ericsson said it will also manage Airtel's network operations centre and field maintenance activities across India.

"Ericsson Operations Engine consolidates our position as the industry leader in network managed services," said Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Ericsson South east Asia, Oceania and India.

"With more than 300 global contracts, Ericsson has proven capabilities in managing and operating multi-vendor and multi-technology networks."

Ericsson said it will also provide Network Optimisation 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, claimed the Swedish gear maker.

"We are confident these new technologies will enable us to serve the emerging data requirements of customers in a digitally connected India," added Randeep Sekhon, Chief Technology Officer, Bharti Airtel.

The agreement builds on the 25-year collaboration between Ericsson and Airtel in India and will use Ericsson's global capabilities in AI-based data-driven automated technology upgrades to boost Airtel's network performance and operational efficiency.

Airtel and Ericsson's long-standing technology and services partnership has spanned 2G, 3G, 4G provision and more recently, live 5G trials.