Nokia, Ericsson Back Airtel’s Priority Service To Postpaid Users Amid Govt Scrutiny

Nokia and Ericsson have supported Bharti Airtel’s new 5G network slicing service for postpaid users, saying the technology can improve customer experience and network efficiency.

Airtel recently launched a priority service for postpaid users that uses network slicing technology.

Through this technology, a dedicated portion of the telecom network is allocated to certain users to provide better speed and connectivity, especially during network congestion.

“Following one of the world’s fastest 5G deployments, India continues to strengthen its position among the most digitally advanced nations... Bharti Airtel joins frontrunner service providers across the USA, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand that are offering differentiated go-to-market experiences, enabled by advanced 5G solutions,” said Börje Ekholm, president and CEO at Ericsson, in a post on LinkedIn.

Ericsson has partnered with the Indian telecom company to enable 5G slicing.

Similarly, Nokia is also a vendor for implementing the slicing technology.

“We are proud that Nokia technology is helping to power this capability. Our 5G core and slicing capabilities are already powering differentiated connectivity for operators across North America, Europe, and Asia, and now India. It builds on more than 20 years of partnership with Airtel across mobile, fixed, and transport networks,” Nokia President and CEO Justin Hotard said in a social media post.

Nokia and Ericsson said network slicing is an important feature of advanced 5G technology and is already being explored globally for different types of services.

The companies said the technology allows telecom operators to customise network performance for different users and applications depending on requirements.

The development comes at a time when the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) are examining Airtel’s service to ensure it does not violate net neutrality norms.

Government officials are evaluating whether giving priority network access to postpaid users could negatively affect service quality for prepaid users.

However, Nokia and Ericsson argued that network slicing is designed to improve network management and user experience rather than discriminate between users unfairly.