Nokia, Airtel join hands on 5G, IoT applications

To build on 4G in terms of power, operations, cost effectiveness with quality and reliability

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In a strategic move, Finnish telecom equipment manufacturer Nokia and India's largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel on Wednesday announced the creation of a strategic roadmap for network evolution to the 5G-technology standard and Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices.

Nokia and Airtel will build on 4G in terms of power, operations and cost effectiveness with the highest level of quality and reliability.

"The 5G and IoT applications have tremendous potential to transform lives and we are pleased to partner with Nokia to enable these future technologies for our customers," Abhay Savargaonkar, Director-Network Services (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel, said in a statement.

The 5G technology promises to enable dramatic improvements in peak data speeds, network latency and agility, as well as the ability to enable new capabilities such as network slicing.

This will allow operators to support a growing number of customers and potentially billions of connected IoT devices with the consistent quality of service.

The technology will also lay the foundation for smarter cities and rural communities, connected vehicles, industrial automation, remote healthcare and a myriad of business possibilities.

"After our successful association with Bharti Airtel for 2G, 3G and 4G technologies, we are proud to partner to prepare for the future of mobile networks. We will leverage our global experience in 5G-related industry projects and collaborations to enable Bharti Airtel to prepare their networks for greater capacity, coverage and speed," added Sanjay Malik, Head of India Market, Nokia.

Nokia and Airtel will leverage Nokia's 5G FIRST end-to-end 5G solution including AirScale radio access portfolio and AirFrame data centre platform to demonstrate 5G capabilities and simulate use cases of 5G extreme broadband and ultra-reliability and low latency communication.

According to Telecom Secretary J S Deepak, who spoke at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, the government is also working to ensure that India embraces 5G telecom networks fast.