Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications services provider with operations in 20 countries across Africa and Asia, in collaboration with Nokia, has won the Global Telecommunication Business (GTB) award for a digital backbone that is driving mobile economy in Africa. Airtel also emerged the winner in Voice over internet Protocol (VoiP) App within the Exceptional Emerging Market category.
 
“Airtel Africa wants to fully utilise the advantages of IP/MPLS technology to economically and effectively handle high volumes of a variety of mobile broadband data and video services. The new network implementation and management not only provides a substantially improved quality of service for our existing customers; it also continues to do an excellent job of enabling us capture expansion opportunities with a wide range of intelligent services across our markets” said Christian de Faria, Executive Chairman, Airtel Africa.
 
Airtel’s digital backbone, enabled by Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) allows businesses to transmit and access data quickly, economically and securely between local and international locations. This eliminates complex architecture in data-carriage.
 
“Nokia’s Managed Services solution enables Airtel to focus on the development of new service offerings and the quality of experience Airtel delivers to its customers in a highly competitive environment. A specific benefit is an accelerated time-to-market for new revenue-generating services, especially toward business customers interested in seizing emerging business opportunities across the African continent” said Daniel Jaeger, Nokia’s Market Unit Head Central, East & West Africa.
 
In a multi-year engagement which started in 2013, Nokia is working with Airtel to build and operate a critical pan-African IP backbone. This backbone is essential to provide a reliable digital network with significant socio-economic benefits for the continent, realising the human possibilities of technology.
 
The awards celebrate the collaboration and partnership between operators and vendors whilst recognising the industry’s commitment to deliver exciting and innovative services to its customers worldwide. They were given out in London and in attendance were 300 telecoms leaders from across the globe.