The Airtel ‘Always On’ solution complies with the Automotive Research Association of India’s AIS-140 standard implemented by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
Indian operator Bharti Airtel announced the launch of its new IoT connectivity solution, dubbed “Always On.”
In a release, the telco said that the new IoT solution comprises dual profile M2M eSim which allows an IoT device to always stay connected to a mobile network from different mobile network operators.
The Airtel ‘Always On’ solution complies with the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI)’s AIS-140 standard implemented by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. This standard imposed mandatory requirements related to connectivity and GPS tracking capabilities for devices in all passenger-carrying buses, private fleets and other public transport vehicles for tracking, safety and security purposes.
According to local laws, all registered buses and taxis in India have to mandatorily install this device. The government recently made it mandatory for vehicles carrying hazardous goods also to have a tracker installed that complies with AIS-140 standards. In addition to these, there are emergency vehicles such as ambulances, vehicles from the mining and construction industry working in remote locations and other mission-critical and intelligent communication use cases which need higher availability and reliability of the network, Bharti Airtel said.
Ajay Chitkara, director and CEO, of Airtel Business said: “We are delighted to bring this connectivity solution to our customers. We believe this is the next big opportunity in the IoT segment. Our strengths in the network, modern and GSMA compliant platform offering real-time access to data and flexibility to integrate the solution with custom APIs will make Airtel Business stand out in the market.”
The company highlighted that the AIS140 solution has already been tested and adopted by some of the leading companies in the industry like Lumax ITuran, Loconav and e-Trans.
Bharti Airtel had recently launched 5G services in eight Indian cities with plans to progressively cover the entire country by March 2024. The telco claimed to be the first company in India to launch 5G. Some of the cities where Airtel already offers 5G include Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi and Bangalore. Company Founder and Chairman Sunil Mittal said that most parts of the country will be covered by 5G by March 2023.
Bharti Airtel will use equipment from Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung for the provision of 5G services. The Indian operator had secured a total of 19,800 megahertz of spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 26 GHz bands in a recent auction carried out by the Indian government.
