To date Airtel has expanded its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband coverage to over 430 towns with plans to extend this to 30 million households in over 2,000 cities in the next three years. In support of this the latest network upgrades build on the strong long-term relationship between Airtel and Juniper Networks.
“We are privileged to have been Airtel’s partner for the last 15 years, growing alongside them as they have expanded their broadband and ISP network, in service of India’s home, SMB and large enterprise customers," said Sajan Paul, managing director & country manager of India & SAARC at Juniper Networks.
"At Juniper, we strive to deliver network experiences that transform how people connect, work and live. As Airtel gears up their network for 5G, we are excited to continually contribute towards their network transformation, not just in support of their fibre-to-the-home broadband services expansion, but also for other use cases and applications across various business segments.
Under the terms of the deal, Juniper Networks will supply, install and provide support for upgrades to the MX Series routers and line cards as part of its broadband network gateway (BNG). In doing so Airtel will be able to manage their subscribers and services, as well as carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) solutions to ensure secure encryption across the network respectively.
In related news, October saw Juniper partner Intel and Rakuten Symphony to develop a “pioneering, carrier-grade” Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) for mobile network operators.