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Indian Telco Airtel Renews Gear Deal With Sweden's Ericsson For Pan-India Operations Amid China Woes

New Delhi (Sputnik): Amid border tensions with China, India has been re-aligning its infrastructure to limit Chinese involvement in the country’s development. In drastic steps, India has imposed bans and stays on Chinese apps and billions of dollars’ worth of projects. The country is also exploring tech trade partnerships with other nations.
Sputnik

Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel on Tuesday renewed its agreement with Sweden-based equipment maker Ericsson to provide network, IT automation, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven managed services across the country for the telco. The firm, headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal, has a total user-base of 327.75 million in India.

The deal is to last three years, during which Airtel is also planning to launch the “Ericsson Operation Engine” as a managed network solution.

"We are confident these new technologies will enable us to serve the emerging data requirements of customers in a digitally connected India", media reports quoted Randeep Sekhon, chief technology officer, Bharti Airtel, as saying.

In addition, the Swedish equipment-maker will provide other services like network optimisation and multi-vendor network combing to Airtel’s network pan-India.

The agreement builds on the 25-year collaboration between Ericsson and Airtel in India.

Another Indian major favouring a non-Chinese tech player strengthens India’s resolution to cut its reliance on China.

Following the existing standoff and violent clash on the intervening night of 15-16 June between the Indian and Chinese armies in the Ladakh region, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is taking stringent steps to further ensure that India becomes “self-reliant” in all respects.
 

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