The hype surrounding 5G is setting a rather high bar. While in recent months we’ve been seeing the number of 5G deployments around the globe grow, we are still at least a couple of years before we see a truly international presence of this transformational technology.

Bharti Airtel announced today that is has been working with Cisco to unveil India’s largest 5G-ready, 100G IP and optical integrated network. Airtel aims to possess the preeminent 5G ready network in the region.

“Airtel continues to transform its network to ensure greater availability and reach across India to deliver best-in-class mobile experience for our customers,” said Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel. “Our ongoing collaboration with Cisco is critical in helping us to be 5G-ready, collapsing multiple legacy domains to build a flatter, simpler and automated network with more bandwidth to support internet services and the endless growth in consumer and business applications people rely on every day.”

Currently, Airtel supports more than 280 million mobile subscribers over 2G and 4G technology – a significant chunk of its 1.17 billion total subscribers. Cisco research notes that by 2023 India will see more than 67 million 5G connections, with 66 percent being mobile and the remainder wired or wi-fi.  

“Airtel is transforming its network to be modern, adaptable and scalable to accommodate the phenomenal mobile growth in India,” said Anand Bhaskar, Managing Director, Cisco Service Provider Business, India and SAARC. “Together we are delivering a highly-scalable IP and optical network throughout India that enables broader mobile access to connect more people, and more businesses who can do more with the internet.”

For telco’s, it is mission critical to create a robust network to be able to not only deliver the next generations of services but to be able to exceed end user expectations with service delivery. 5G is coming, let’s hope telcos around the globe are ready.