• In order to expand 2Africa Pearls to India, Airtel will collaborate with Meta and STC.
• Meta revealed their intention to expand 2Africa Pearls to India in 2021.
• Cable will be extended by Airtel and Meta to the Mumbai landing station of Airtel.

On Monday, the world's largest social networking platform Meta Platforms and Bharti Airtel together announced plans to invest in telecom infrastructure to meet India's growing demand for high-speed internet and digital services. 

The proposal comes in response to demands made by telecom operators for revenue sharing with service providers so they can expand their networks. According to the release, “Airtel and Meta will jointly invest in global connectivity infrastructure and CPaaS-based new-age digital solutions to support the rising demand of users and enterprises in India.” 

In accordance with the agreement, Airtel would cooperate with Meta and STC (Saudi Telecom Company) to link India to the 2Africa Pearls undersea cable system, the world's longest subsea cable system at the moment. In September 2021, Meta announced that 2Africa Pearls would be expanded to India. 

Airtel and Meta will purchase dedicated capacity and extend the cable to Airtel's landing station in Mumbai in an effort to improve their submarine network portfolio. The 2Africa cable, according to the release, 'would greatly increase India's cable capacity and enabling global hyper-scalers and businesses to construct innovative integrated solutions and give a high-quality seamless experience to clients.' 

Airtel plans to include WhatsApp from Meta into its CPaaS platform. Due to this connection, businesses can now use WhatsApp's reach to provide omnichannel client interaction. Vijay Venkatesh, CEO of Bharti Airtel's global operations, said: 'We are investing in essential and cutting-edge connectivity infrastructure with our contributions to the 2Africa cable and Open RAN, which is required to address the increased demand for high-speed data in India.

 Airtel and Meta are members of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) Open RAN project group. Through the use of sophisticated analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning models, Airtel will assist in enhancing Open RAN's operational efficiency and facilitating energy management and automation in radio networks. 

In the state of Haryana, Airtel is currently testing 4G and 5G Open RAN solutions. Over the ensuing few quarters, the company will commercially deploy the solution across a number of locations in India.