Bharti Airtel and the Tata Group on Monday announced a strategic partnership for implementing 5G network solutions for India. “The Tata Group has developed O-RAN (Open Radio Access Network)-based Radio and NSA/SA (Non-Standalone/Standalone) Core and has integrated a totally-indigenous telecom stack, leveraging the group capabilities and that of its partners,” a joint statement of Bhart Airtel and Tata Group said.

The 5G network solutions will be available for commercial development from January 2022. “Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) brings its global system integration expertise and helps align the end-to-end solution to both 3GPP and O-RAN standards, as the network and equipment are increasingly embedded into software,” the statement added. 

Airtel will pilot and deploy the indigenous solutions as a part of its 5G rollout plans in India and begin the pilot in January 2022 according to the norms formulated by the government. “These Made-in-India 5G product and solutions are aligned to global standards and inter-operate with other products based on standard open interfaces and those defined by the O-RAN Alliance,” the statement said. 

The 5G solutions, once commercially proven in Airtel’s diverse and brownfield network, will open export opportunities for India, which is now the second-largest telecom market globally, it added. Open RAN architecture is industry terminology for interoperability and standardisation of radio access network elements, including products and software from various vendors.