Bharti Airtel has selected IBM and Red Hat to build its new telco network cloud, designed to make it more efficient to support core operations and enable new digital services.
Airtel, India’s third largest telecom operator based on subscribers, will build its core network, analytical tools and new consumer and enterprise services on top of this cloud platform based on open standards.

The new network cloud will enable Airtel to deliver a better customer experience through enhanced network performance, improved availability, operations automation and scaling the network to the edge. This is designed to reduce latency and improve bandwidth availability and automation, thereby strengthening the overall quality of the network.

Airtel will be using IBM and Red Hat’s portfolio of hybrid cloud and cognitive enterprise capabilities. Airtel’s open hybrid cloud platform is expected to help enable new revenue streams with the on-boarding of third-party services including gaming, remote media production and enterprise services.

By embracing IBM and Red Hat’s hybrid cloud technology all the way to the network edge, Airtel aims to achieve improvement in time-to-market of services, reduction in operating expenses and reduced capital expenses,” said Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel.

“IBM is a collaborator to many of the world’s largest and innovative communications service providers like Airtel as they transform their networks into open and secure hybrid multicloud platforms and prepare for the 5G and edge computing era,” Steve Canepa, head of Telecommunications, Media & Entertainment Industry, IBM, said in a statement.

“Red Hat is providing innovative open source solutions to help Airtel improve flexibility and reduce development time, so they can stay competitive in the rapidly evolving telecommunications market,” said Darrell Jordan-Smith, global vice president, vertical industries and accounts, Red Hat.