Indian operator Bharti Airtel has awarded technology giant Ericsson a multi-year network operations centre (NOC) managed services (MS) contract.

Under this agreement, Ericsson will enable intent-based operations, powered by its centralised NOC, to manage Airtel services across 4G, 5G NSA, 5G SA, fixed wireless access (FWA), private networks, and network slicing.

This partnership will see Ericsson manage Airtel’s pan-India network through its state-of-the-art NOC while scaling FWA and network slicing across the country.

Ericsson says its long-standing partnership with Bharti Airtel spans over 25 years and encompasses multiple generations of mobile communications technology.

This announcement follows hard on the heels of Bharti Airtel’s recently announced collaboration with Ericsson on 5G core to drive 5G evolution, and of course last year’s multi-billion-dollar deal, reported here, to supply 4G and 5G equipment and solutions to Bharti Airtel. That multi-year agreement includes the deployment of centralised RAN and open RAN-ready solutions.

Little further information has so far been made public. However, Randeep Sekhon, CTO Bharti Airtel, says: “We believe that these innovative technologies will empower us to meet the growing data demands of consumers in a digitally connected India.” 

Andres Vicente, Head of Market Area Southeast Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson, explains: “By leveraging intent-based NOC operations, we will enable Airtel to unlock wider service diversification to meet customer needs, thereby enabling new revenue opportunities for Airtel.”