Airtel unveils new 5G initiative for enterprises

Airtel is joining forces with technology companies such as Accenture, AWS, CISCO, Ericsson, Google Cloud, Nokia, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to work with industry leading brands such as Apollo Hospitals, Flipkart and several leading manufacturing companies to test 5G-based solutions.

"The 5G ecosystem will open limitless possibilities for enterprises to enhance productivity and serve their customers even better with digitally enabled applications," said Randeep Singh Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel.

These solutions, said the company, will be deployed on 5G test spectrum allotted to Airtel and include use cases like smart factory, smart healthcare, 5G-powered quality inspection, digital twin, connected frontline workforce and AR/VR based use cases, among others.

The use case demonstrations will be conducted both at end-user locations and at Airtel's advanced 5G lab in Network Experience Centre at Manesar in Gurgaon.

Earlier this year Airtel demonstrated India's first 5G experience over a Live 4G network. 

It has also demonstrated India's first rural 5G trial as well as the first cloud gaming experience on 5G.

Airtel is also spearheading the O-RAN Alliance initiatives in India to build 5G solutions and has announced partnerships with Tata Group, Qualcomm, Intel, Mavenir and Altiostar.