Bharti Airtel picks Mavenir for O-RAN deployment: Report

Indian operator Bharti Airtel has selected U.S. company Mavenir for the deployment of Open RAN (O-RAN) systems as part of its current nationwide 5G rollout, Indian newspaper The Economic Times reported.

According to the report, which cites sources with knowledge of the matter, Bharti Airtel is deploying Mavenir’s 4G and 5G O-RAN technology at some 2,500 sites in rural parts of India and plans to expand this to 10,000 sites nationwide.

The two companies have been already working together on O-RAN developments. In April 2022, Bharti Airtel had carried out what it claimed to be India’s first O-RAN-based live 5G network validation in partnership with Mavenir.

The O-RAN-based 5G validation has been conducted in Chandigarh and Mohali, using the 3.5 GHz band test spectrum allotted to Airtel by the Department of Telecom (DoT). Speeds of over 1 Gbps were validated with the equipment deployed and configured in NonStandalone (NSA) mode and using commercially available 5G mobile devices.

At that time, Randeep Sekhon, CTO at Bharti Airtel, said: “This is a major milestone for the Open RAN ecosystem in India, and yet another validation of the growing readiness of 5G networks based on open architecture. Airtel is delighted to spearhead the innovation efforts of O-RAN Alliance in India. We look forward to deepening our technology partnership with Mavenir and collaborate to accelerate the deployment of these radio access networks.”

Bharti Airtel has already deployed its 5G services in more than 3,000 towns and cities across India.

Last year, Mavenir said it was in talks to provide 5G gear to Indian carriers including Vodafone Idea. The U.S. firm said it was expecting to start supplying its made-in-India 4G and 5G O-RAN radios.

Mavenir executives had said that the firm was seeing room for the development of O-RAN in India, mainly for brownfield O-RAN deployments. Mavenir had previously set up its manufacturing unit in Pune to produce 2G, 4G, and 5G O-RAN for its OpenBeam portfolio in India, suited for Indian and international frequency bands.

Earlier this month, Mavenir announced the closing of a $100 million capital raise, which will support the company’s efforts to enable the digitization of telco networks with O-RAN, IMS and converged packet core.

The company noted this new funding adds to the $250 million raised in 2022. The fundraising round was anchored by Siris, a technology focused private equity firm and Mavenir’s largest equity holder, along with investment from two highly strategic ecosystem partners.

“This new capital will allow us to accelerate our capabilities in automation, sustainability, and use of AI as we enable our customers to efficiently deploy and operate O-RAN based end-to-end cloud-native networks. Our unique strategy incorporates best practices from the hyperscale, cloud and IT industries, to transform how the world connects and builds the future of networks,” Pardeep Kohli, president and CEO of Mavenir, said.