NEWS
Airtel deploys
India’s largest
open cloudbased
VoLTE
network with
Nokia software
products
Most Australians don’t realize
mobile data contributes to
carbon emissions
Nokia has announced that its CloudBandbased
software products are powering
Bharti Airtel’s (Airtel) Voice over LTE (VoLTE)
network in India. The network supports over
110 million customers, making it the largest
cloud-based VoLTE network in India and the
largest Nokia-run VoLTE in the world.
The cloud-based VoLTE deployment allows
Airtel to provide its mobile customers
faster and more reliable, cost-efficient call
connectivity. The solution, which has been
deployed to cover all 22 telecom service areas
in India, uses Commercial Off-the-Shelf IT
hardware with cloud-based Virtual Network
Functions (VNFs), which consumes much less
power and space compared to the traditional
2G/3G Circuit Switched legacy core.
Nokia’s VoLTE solution enables Airtel to
free up spectrum by ramping down its 3G
network, allowing the operator to utilize the
freed-up spectrum to deploy 4G/LTE services
for better speed and capacity.
As part of its cloudification strategy,
Airtel will also deploy Nokia’s CloudBand
Infrastructure Software with the aim to
create new revenue opportunities for 5G and
Internet-connected devices. As a vendoragnostic,
multi-technology and multidomain
platform, CloudBand will enable
Airtel to lay the foundation for 5G networks
and deliver new digital services with greater
ease, flexibility and agility and ensure a
reliable and high-performing network for
delivering improved customer experience.
New research from Australian telco
Belong has revealed only around
8% of Australians realize mobile data
contributes to carbon emissions.
This is despite mobile data networks
in Australia causing in excess of an
estimated half a million tonnes of CO 2
every year.
As a result Belong has become
Australia’s first accredited carbon neutral
telecommunications provider – with all
operations and services certified ‘carbon
neutral’ at no extra cost to its customers.
Belong CEO, Ben Burge, said the
organization is dedicated to helping
Australians understand their ‘carbon
thumbprint’, arming the general public
with easy steps to help reduce their
emissions. “More than half of Australia’s
CO 2
emissions are a product of energy use
– either directly or as an output from the
products and services we use. We don’t
see the physical and tangible process
which cause these emissions. Therefore,
awareness around carbon usage is
understandably very low,” said Burge.
In a bid to raise awareness, Belong
has launched its Carbon Thumbprint
campaign including the Carbon
Thumbprint App where consumers are
able to easily calculate their mobile data
carbon effect.
“The point of the campaign is to make it
easier for people to contribute positively
to the environment. By switching to
an accredited carbon neutral provider,
consumers are turning an everyday habit
into a positive change and the app helps
them get there,” said Burge.
10 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com