The plan to expand 2Africa Pearls to India was announced by Meta in September 2021. (File)
New Delhi:
Social media giant Meta Platforms and Bharti Airtel today announced a partnership to jointly invest in telecom infrastructure to meet the rising demand for high-speed data and digital services in India.
The announcement comes amid demand from telecom operators to share revenue with service providers to build networks.
“Airtel and Meta will jointly invest in global connectivity infrastructure and CPaaS (communications platform as a service) based new digital solutions to support the emerging demands of customers and enterprises in India,” the statement said.
As part of the partnership, Airtel will work with Meta and STC (Saudi Telecom Company) to expand the world’s longest submarine cable system, 2Africa Pearls, to India.
The plan to expand 2Africa Pearls to India was announced by Meta in September 2021.
Under the partnership, Airtel and Meta will extend the cable to Airtel’s landing station in Mumbai and also pick up dedicated capacity to further strengthen their submarine network portfolio.
“The 2Africa cable will significantly increase India’s cable capacity and enable global hyperscalers and businesses to build new integrated solutions and provide customers with a seamless, high-quality experience,” the statement said.
Airtel will also integrate Meta’s WhatsApp into its CPaaS platform. With this integration, companies can now use WhatsApp and Reach to provide omnichannel customer engagement to businesses.
“We, at Airtel, are excited to deepen our partnership with Meta to serve India’s digitally connected economy by leveraging the technology and infrastructure strengths of both companies. With our contributions to 2Africa cable and Open RAN, we are investing in critical and forward-thinking connectivity infrastructure required to support the increasing demand for high-speed data in India,” said Bharti Airtel, CEO for Global Business, Vani Venkatesh.
Airtel and Meta are members of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) Open RAN project group. Airtel has signed an agreement to help increase Open RAN (Radio Access Network) operational efficiency and facilitate power management and automation in radio networks using advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning models.
Airtel is currently conducting trials for 4G and 5G Open RAN solutions in selected locations in Haryana state and will commercially deploy the solution in several locations in India in the coming quarters, the statement said.
“We look forward to continuing our partnership with Airtel to further enhance the region’s connectivity infrastructure, which will enable a better network experience for people and businesses across India,” said Meta, vice president of mobile partnerships, Francisco Varela.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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