Bharti Airtel rises 3% on partnering with Ericsson for 5G Core technology

Bharti Airtel shares rose 2.6 per cent in Tuesday's trade on BSE, logging an intraday high at Rs 1,643 per share. The stock gained after the company announced to partner with Ericsson for 5G Core technology.

 

Around 12:36 PM, Airtel share price was up 2.26 per cent at Rs 1,637 per share on BSE. In comparison, the BSE Sensex was up 0.27 per cent at 74,657.18. The market capitalisation of the company stood at Rs 

9,33,425.48 crore. The 52-week high of the stock was at Rs 1,778.95 per share and the 52-week low was at Rs 1,098.1 per share.

 

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As per the filing, the collaboration will enable Airtel to seamlessly transition to a commercially live, full-scale 5G standalone network over time, bringing the high-end capabilities of 5G to their customers. The services offered by Ericsson will benefit Airtel's millions of customers and enterprises across India, as per the filing.

 

As part of this agreement, Ericsson will deploy its signaling controller solution within Bharti Airtel's network. Furthermore, Ericsson's 5G standalone-enabled charging and policy solution will be introduced.   ALSO READ: Airtel, Tata Play plan merger amid DTH struggles, expand service bundles

 

Ericsson is a longstanding Bharti Airtel connectivity partner with a close relationship spanning more than 25 years and covering every generation of mobile communications, including the award of Bharti Airtel’s first 5G contract in India. 

 

The telecom major recently also entered an agreement with Apple to bring the highly acclaimed Apple TV+ streaming services and Apple Music to Airtel customers.

 

All Home Wi-Fi customers on plans starting at Rs 999 will get access to the content of Apple TV+ with the option to stream content on multiple devices while on the move. 

 

Global brokerage Goldman Sachs believes Airtel's Indian business is seeing an improvement on the free cash flow (FCF) generation front, as per reports. 

 

Further, as per the brokerage, the expectation has been of this translating into better shareholder payout starting CY25. The purchase of a 5 per cent additional stake in Africa Entity could raise capital allocation concerns. Given growth and earnings visibility, investors would prefer Bharti to invest in its India business.  Investors would prefer consolidating stakes in assets such as data centers. Investors would prefer shareholder payouts.

 

In the past one year, Bharti Airtel shares have gained 42  per cent against Sensex's rise of 2.2 per cent.