Multinational telecom network kit makers Ericsson and Nokia said Bharti Airtel’s recently deployed fifth-generation (5G) network slicing technology will expedite the roll-out of artificial intelligence (AI) capable devices and applications, and shape networks for the intelligence era. <\/p>\n
\u201cCongratulations to India and Airtel for once again being at the forefront of 5G innovation,\u201d Borje Ekholm, president & CEO of Ericsson, said on professional networking platform LinkedIn on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing one of the world\u2019s fastest 5G deployments, India continues to strengthen its position among the most digitally advanced nations with Bharti Airtel\u2019s pioneering launch of differentiated connectivity services for its postpaid customers,\u201d Ekholm added. <\/p>\n
By leveraging 5G Standalone (SA) architecture and advanced network slicing, Airtel can enhance capacity and capability to deliver targeted superior performance for its postpaid customers, he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese capabilities will also accelerate the introduction of new AI devices and applications, which require consistent latency and uninterrupted performance,\u201d Ekholm added. <\/p>\n
The chief executive\u2019s comment comes a day after the Sunil Mittal-led telecom carrier became the first in India to launch a 5G network slicing-enabled \u201cPostpaid Priority\u201d service, with subscription packs starting at \u20b9449 per month (ex-GST) with bundled over-the-top (OTT) content offerings. <\/p>\n
\u201cBharti 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,\u201d Ekholm said. <\/p>\n
The Stockholm-headquartered multinational, together with Finland\u2019s Nokia and South Korean Samsung, is a 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) supplier to Airtel.<\/p>\n
“Congratulations to Bharti Airtel on the launch of Priority Postpaid, bringing 5G network slicing to postpaid customers and joining a small group of operators globally delivering differentiated connectivity at scale,” Justin Hotard, president & CEO, Nokia, said on LinkedIn on Thursday. <\/p>\n
“We are proud that Nokia technology is helping to power this capability,” said Hotard. Nokia’s 5G core and slicing capabilities are already powering differentiated connectivity for telcos across North America, Europe, and Asia, and now India. <\/p>\n
“India continues to lead with innovation, scale, and speed. What Airtel is building today will help shape how networks evolve in the AI era, and we look forward to continuing to co-innovate together,” Hotard said. <\/p>\n
5G network slicing is a core feature of the standalone architecture, which allows providing service-level agreement (SLA)-backed consumer and enterprise use cases. <\/p>\n
At the most recent quarterly earnings call, Airtel India MD & CEO Shashwat Sharma had revealed that Airtel’s 5G mobile network has become SA-ready, while the FWA service is running fully on SA. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe launch of 5G slicing services by Airtel is an innovation in 5G spectrum use, aligned with 3GPP standards,\u201d the ITU-APT Foundation of India (IAFI) said on microblogging platform X on Wednesday. \u201cGlobally, network slicing is emerging as the next phase of 5G evolution, with operators like Singtel, U Mobile, and EE using it to provide enhanced customer experiences,\u201d the industry association said.<\/p>\n
Industry experts said Airtel’s 5G network slicing-based technological upgrade would offer more efficient services with additional capacity and would not violate the principle of net neutrality, ETTelecom reported in its May 19, 2026, edition. <\/p>\n
Rival Reliance Jio, too, has said it plans to offer network slicing-driven premium 5G services to subscribers after receiving regulatory clarity.<\/p>\n
“Slicing in general will not violate net neutrality, given pricing and quality. In fact, the technology will unlock the benefits of the next generation (5G) network,” SP Kochhar, director-general of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), said. <\/p>\n
The Delhi-based telco group represents Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea.<\/p>\n
Airtel’s move signals that the postpaid offerings may kick-off Indian telcos\u2019 5G monetisation efforts, leveraging bandwidth-driven services. Both Airtel and Jio already sell commercial 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services bundled with premium OTT services.<\/p>\n
\u201cPriority Postpaid is our latest innovation powered by the 5G slicing technology. It provides a superior, more reliable, and dependable experience to our customers \u2014 whether they are attending a client call in traffic, or streaming at a packed concert, or booking a cab in a crowded market,\u201d Sharma said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Multinational telecom network kit makers Ericsson and Nokia said Bharti Airtel’s recently deployed fifth-generation (5G) network slicing technology will expedite the roll-out of artificial intelligence (AI) capable devices and applications, and shape networks for the intelligence era. \u201cCongratulations to India and Airtel for once again being at the forefront of 5G innovation,\u201d Borje Ekholm, president & CEO of Ericsson, said on professional networking platform LinkedIn on Wednesday. \u201cFollowing one of the world\u2019s fastest 5G deployments, India continues to strengthen its position among the most digitally advanced nations with Bharti Airtel\u2019s pioneering launch of differentiated connectivity services for its postpaid customers,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1009059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-telecom"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1009059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1009060,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009059\/revisions\/1009060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1009059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1009059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1009059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}