The Nokia OTN solution will enable Airtel to upgrade its legacy transport switching infrastructure across its pan-Indian network footprint

Finnish vendor Nokia has enteredan agreement with Indian carrier Bharti Airtel to deploy a next-generation optical transport network with the aim of providing additional capacity and higher reliability to improve services for Airtel’s customers.

As part of the agreement, Airtel will utilize Nokia’s 1830 PSS-x OTN switches in its national long-distance network connecting major cities across India.

Nokia highlighted that the launch of 5G networks and the push for broadband connectivity across the Asian country is increasing demands for communications service providers (CSPs), including augmentation of backhaul transport for denser 5G mobile networks, wholesale connectivity for new segments like smart grids, datacenter interconnect and other business services. To address this exponential growth in traffic demand, Nokia noted that transport networks need to be upgraded to increase overall transport capacity and bandwidth efficiency using high capacity OTN switching and utilizing additional spectrum including the L-band wavelengths of the fiber.

The Nordic vendor also said that the increased capacity enabled by this new deployment will mean that Bharti Airtel can potentially deliver faster and more reliable broadband services and be ready for emerging use cases.

The Nokia OTN solution also enables the Indian operator to upgrade its legacy transport switching infrastructure across its pan-Indian network footprint to meet new transport network traffic demands, the company said.

Chandan Kumar, head of optical network business center for Nokia India, said: “Our technology will help Airtel to increase the capacity and features of its optical transport network to meet growing bandwidth demand driven by the enterprise and hyperscaler segments. It will also provide the service level performance to meet the strict SLAs from Airtel customers.”

Nokia is expecting substantial demand for 5G equipment in India during the next two years, Nokia India head of mobile networks business Tarun Chhabra, recently said.

Also, in a recent conference call, Nokia President and CEO Pekka Lundmark said the vendor’s business continued to see growth in 5G deployments in India, despite overall global equipment sales volume moderating significantly in the third quarter as the pace of 5G deployment has started to normalize.

Chhabra said that Nokia will increase shipment of 5G gear from India if demand grows, but noted he expects the growth momentum in India to continue.

Chhabra also said that 5G use cases in ports, manufacturing, defense and railways, have the potential to provide monetization opportunities for local telecom operators.

Talking about the development of future 6G systems, Chhabra said that Nokia has set up a 6G sensing lab in Bengaluru where the company also has a research and development center with around 8,000 engineers.