Airtel announces strategic collaboration with China Mobile
Thursday, 5 March 2015 01:23
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To jointly foster growth of 4G LTE ecosystem and promote development of affordable LTE devicesBoth companies to share network and product best practices and technical lessons Work together for standards and products to accelerate commercialisation of LTE and evolving 4.5G/5G techno Develop standards and strengthen testing for inter-operability of LTE roaming, VoLTE, etc.
Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications service provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, on Tuesday announced a strategic collaboration with China Mobile under which the two companies will work towards the growth of the LTE ecosystem and evolving mobile technology standards.
Airtel and China Mobile will also work towards shaping a joint strategy for the procurement of devices that include Mifi, smartphones, data cards, LTE CPEs and USIM.
The strategic collaboration aims to bring together the largest mobile operators from the world’s two largest mobile markets – China and India. China Mobile and Airtel are also among the founding members of the Global TD-LTE initiative. A MoU was signed by China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua and Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal.
With both China and India on the cusp of a large-scale roll-out of high speed 4G data services, China Mobile and Airtel plan to share a relevant network as well as product knowledge (specifically for new technologies like 4G), best practices and technical lessons to enable the delivery of world-class affordable services to customers. Airtel and China Mobile will also work together for development of relevant technical standards and inter-operability testing.
Additionally, as founders of Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI), China Mobile and Airtel will cooperate on standards and product development and promoting a robust ecosystem to accelerate the commercialisation of TD-LTE and evolving 4.5G/5G technologies.
Speaking at the occasion, Sunil Bharti Mittal said: “We are delighted to announce this landmark agreement with China Mobile. India and China account for nearly third of all the mobile subscribers globally and this partnership will provide a major platform for development and deployment of 4G and future mobile technology standards as both countries enter a phase of explosive data led growth. We are confident that the exchange of best practices and innovations will help in delivering affordable high-speed mobile internet to the masses and contribute to the Indian Government’s ‘Digital India’ vision.”
Both companies will work together to understand and share testing and validation practices (including network equipment, features and new releases, etc.) and also jointly conduct proof of concepts as well as trials. China Mobile and Airtel will also aim to bring in cost-efficiency by driving synergies in their procurement strategies, among other collaborative efforts included in this MoU agreement.
