Airtel To Bring In 'Air' Data Connectivity For Airline Passengers, Joins Global Alliance

The formation of the alliance was announced in Barcelona. The other founding members of the alliance are OneWeb, Airbus, Delta and Sprint.

For the full financial year that ended in March 2018, Airtel's net profit came in at Rs 1,099 crore, over 71 per cent lower than Rs 3,800 crore logged in FY2016-17. (Photo Credits: PTI)

The world's third largest mobile operator and India's largest telecom operator- Bharti Airtel, has said that it has joined 'Seamless Alliance' to provide in-flight data connectivity to customers. The formation of the alliance was announced in Barcelona. The other founding members of the alliance are OneWeb, Airbus, Delta and Sprint.

“We are delighted to be a founding member of this innovative technology platform to bring seamless connectivity to customers in the true sense. Over 370 million mobile customers across Airtel’s global network will be able to enjoy uninterrupted access to high speed data services even while they are in-flight. We look forward to collaborating with all partner members to ensure this platform goes LIVE at the earliest,” said Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel.

According to reports, the global alliance aims to have more industry operators as it would eliminate the heavy costs and hurdles which are commonly associated with acquisition, installation, and operation of data access infrastructure. The uniformity in the process would help streamlining system integration and certification and provide open specifications for interoperability which would increase accessibility for passengers and enable  simple and integrated billing.

On Friday, February 23, the first-ever trial run of 56 network was conducted in India on Friday by Chinese tech major Huawei and leading domestic telecomp service provider Bharti Airtel. The fastest internet technology was conducted at Airtel's Network Experience Centre in Haryana Manesar.

Confirming the successful test launch, Bharti Airtel's Director Networks Abhay Savargaonkar said the test-run has affirmed their resolve to develop a robust 5G ecosystem in India.

During the 5G interoperability and development testing (IODT), a user throughput of more than 3Gbps was achieved, claimed the statement issued by Bharti Airtel.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 26, 2018 03:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).

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