Airtel Selects Ribbon’s 5G-Native Neptune Platform to Upgrade its Packet Transport Network

Ribbon Communications has announced that Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s leading integrated telco, has chosen its 5G-Native Neptune platform to enhance its mobile backhaul transport capabilities.

The deployment is part of Airtel’s network strategy to make its network future-proof and ready for a seamless transition to emerging technologies such as 5G.

Ribbon’s 5G-native Neptune solution will be deployed throughout Bharti Airtel’s India network, providing high capacity, low latency and real time programmability. The Neptune platform enables a powerful, efficient multi-layer next-generation network solution for a seamless evolution to future 5G services.

“Ribbon has been a trusted partner since 2004, and their proven track record gives us confidence that they will successfully manage this upgrade. This compact, robust IP/MPLS-Access solution from Ribbon will both serve our current needs and make the Airtel network 5G ready,” said Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel.

Ribbon’s 5G network solution will be controlled, managed and automated by its cloud-native Muse system, already deployed, which is based on SDN (Software Defined Networking) concepts for real time programmability and network planning applications. Ribbon’s Muse Domain Orchestration provides Airtel with an integrated machine-to-machine ecosystem for end-to-end automated service fulfillment and assurance as well as automated migration from the existing network to the modernized one.

“5G will unleash a significant array of new applications and services that users around the world will benefit from,” said Bruce McClelland, CEO of Ribbon Communications. “We are honored to have been selected by Bharti Airtel for this critical upgrade and look forward to further expanding our relationship while supporting their pioneering vision for the future.”