Country's second largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel (Airtel) on Thursday said it has entered into a strategic partnership with Tech Mahindra to co-develop and market 5G use cases in India.
The companies will build and market innovative solutions for India’s digital economy by bringing together their core strengths, Airtel said in a statement.
Airtel has been spearheading 5G demos and testing in India while Tech Mahindra has developed world-class 5G applications and platforms. Airtel and Tech Mahindra will jointly set up a 5G innovation lab for developing 'Make in India' use cases for the Indian and global markets.
Through partnership, they intend to bring out a customided Enterprise Grade Private Networks, a core of the digital economy. These solutions will focus on combining Airtel’s integrated connectivity portfolio of 5G ready mobile network, Fiber, SDWAN, and IoT along with Tech Mahindra’s proven system integration capabilities.
The companies would initially focus on segments such as automobiles, aviation, ports, utilities, chemicals, Oil and Gas and expand to other industries going forward, it said.
“Airtel and Tech Mahindra have a shared vision of supporting the growth of India’s digital ecosystem. With proven technology capabilities and deep customer trust enjoyed by the two brands, we believe this is a win-win partnership," Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, Chief Executive Officer-Enterprise Business, Airtel said.
Airtel and Tech Mahindra will also offer secure Cloud and Content Delivery Network (CDN) solutions to businesses. With enterprises rapidly moving to cloud-based platforms as part of their digital transformation journeys, Airtel has built a formidable Hybrid Cloud portfolio with Airtel Cloud, Airtel IQ (CPaaS) alongside CDN offerings. Further, the two companies will explore leveraging Tech Mahindra’s technological expertise to support Airtel in Cloud Engineering, implementation of tools for Cloud Orchestration.
"In line with Tech Mahindra’s NXT.NOWTM framework, this collaboration is focused on offering next-generation services to the Indian market by enabling transformation via network, cloud engineering and customer experience," Manish Vyas, President, Communications, Media and Entertainment Business, and CEO, Network Services, Tech Mahindra, said.