Under the terms of the deal, the Indian telco will deploy its proprietary IoT platform ‘Airtel IoT Hub’
India’s largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, announced that it has won a contract to provide a cellular IoT solution for TP Western Odisha Distribution Limited (TPWODL).
TPWODL is a joint venture between government of Odisha and Tata Power. Under the terms of the contract, Airtel will power 200,000 smart meters with IoT connectivity, of which 70,000 will be delivered in the first phase.
Under the terms of the agreement, Airtel will deploy its proprietary IoT platform, “Airtel IoT Hub”, which will help the utility track and monitor the smart meters with advanced analytics while maintaining “extremely high” reliability.
Airtel noted that smart metering is one of the most rapidly advancing use case for cellular IoT in India, with several power distribution companies looking forward to invest in this space to prevent revenue leakage.
Bharti Airtel is working with multiple state utilities in Punjab, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar. The telco explained that the government of India has a “big ambitious vision” of replacing 300 million conventional meters with smart meters in the next five years as part of its Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) initiative.
Gajanan Kale, CEO of TP Western Odisha Distribution Limited, said: “We want to create a customer focused, technology savvy and future ready distribution company. We believe that technology can provide us a lot of answers as we step out to create such a company. We are looking forward to deploying smart meters for billing in partnership with Airtel and making best use of their IoT technology to deliver reliable and customer friendly services.”
“As India’s electricity sector embraces changes ushered in by new reforms, we look forward to set an example demonstrating how technology can enable efficient service delivery solutions for companies that are customer friendly. With capabilities of remote network feasibility, advanced diagnostics and a future-ready IoT platform with readily available APIs for seamless integration, we are confident to serve our customers well in this space,” said Siddharth Talawadekar, business head of IoT at Airtel.
Bharti Airtel is already offering 5G services in 12 cities across the country, according to local press reports.
In October, Bharti Airtel launched 5G services in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi. The offering is also currently available in parts of Gurugram, Panipat, Guwahati and Patna. Additionally, the carrier aims to launch 5G in the city of Kolkata in the near future, according to local press reports.
Bharti Airtel founder and chairman Sunil Mittal said that most parts of the country will be covered by 5G by March 2023.
The Indian operator is currently using equipment from Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung to provide 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.
