Bharti Airtel, one of the leading telecom operators in the country, has unveiled its 5G plans in India. The telco has been one of the biggest supporters of Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) adoption in the country. Airtel wants to move ahead with O-RAN to roll out 5G in India in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Speaking at the ‘Built in India Virtual Summit’ organised by ET Telecom and Telecom Infra Project, Manish Gangey, Head of Network Architecture and R&D at Bharti Airtel, said, open and disaggregated network technologies are the future of the telecom industry.
Indian Telecom Operators Don’t Get Fair Return on Investments
Gangey went on to say that India is a kind of market where the average revenue per user (ARPU) is very low for the operators while the data usage by the consumers is very high. This means that the operators always need to be on their toes to ensure that high-speed connectivity and seamless network services are offered to the users at all times. Gangey said that because the ARPU is very low, the operators don’t get much return on their investments. Gangey further said that for building resilient mobile networks for the future, the operators need to adopt O-RAN technologies. It will help them in reducing both opex and capex while at the same time will enable the operators to provide better services. Gangey noted that Bharti Airtel’s plan for 5G in India is to go ahead with O-RAN only. It is worth noting that O-RAN technologies are still in the development phase. The operators can surely adopt it in the medium-term and improve their return on investments. O-RAN adoption will help the operators in saving money since they won’t have to buy everything from the same telecom vendor. Nokia, Ericsson, and Huawei are some of the prominent companies that have ruled the market because of no O-RAN technologies available.
