Ericsson has been selected by Bharti Airtel (Airtel) to deploy its 5G-ready Cloud Packet Core in Airtel’s Pan India core network.

Airtel will benefit from Ericsson’s market leading packet core network applications and functions. The deployment will consist of solutions like Ericsson virtual Evolved Packet Gateway (vEPG) that follow ETSI standards. The deployment will enhance capacity in Airtel’s network and enable the network to address the rapidly growing demand for high-speed data services.

Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel, says: “The Indian telecom market is witnessing massive surge in data usage. To address this demand and evolving consumption patterns, we are investing in innovative technologies and solutions to enable a superlative data experience for our customers in India. Ericsson is one of our key network partners and this deployment will help us enhance our packet core network which will not just scale up data capacity, but also make us edge cloud ready.”

Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Ericsson South East Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson, says: “Ericsson has been leading the virtual Evolved Packet Core market for several years now and our solutions in this area are gaining traction around the world. The technologies and solutions that we are providing Airtel are a key part of Ericsson’s 5G Core offering. The deployment of these technologies will help Airtel in meeting the rapidly evolving demands of customers and also enable swift deployment of new use cases and innovative services for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and Internet of Things (IoT).”