The Silicon Review ^Asia

Nokia, the Finnish telecom gear maker, has partnered with Bharti Airtel as a part of a trial to test the new 4G, 5G and enterprise services through a common platform in India. Through this move, Airtel hopes to give a boost to its strategy of making its network future ready and develop it in line with the increasing demands of the high speed data consuming customers.According to Nokia, the new solutions under this trial can greatly help Airtel to upgrade and enhance the performance of its existing network as well as enable it to deliver 5G services.

Nokia’s homogenous front haul solution is a link between baseband unit and radio, which can deliver high-speed and low latency 5G services when modernised. Its new converged fronthaul transport solution will reduce fibre requirement through multi-channel bi-directional transmission on a single fibre. This solution supports multiple interfaces, which include Common Public Radio Interfaces and enhanced Common Public Radio Interfaces. According to a statement made by Randeep Sekhon, CTO at Bharti Airtel, Airtel has never stayed back from setting its standards and rolling out new network technologies. And improving the transport network is yet another move to meet the requirements of the mobile broadband services brought by the digital revolution in India. The company is also looking forward to Nokia’s support in upgrading the 5G technology.

Commenting on the ongoing developments, Sanjay Malik, Head of India Market, Noida, said that in order to achieve the ultra-high speed and low latency that seems possible with 5G, the modernization of the transport infrastructure is critically important. The collaboration with Bharti Airtel will prove truly beneficial to prepare the networks for 5G. Moreover, the ring architecture will add resiliency to the network.