Top Indian telcos Jio, Airtel use GIS for 5G FWA, FTTH expansion: Esri's Agendra Kumar
5G
)-led networks and expand fixed wireless access (FWA) services, and to enhance user experience, according to a senior executive of
Esri India
.
'GIS is very important and the two largest operators, namely
Reliance Jio
and
Bharti Airtel
, use our technology. Once they sign up a customer, they geocode their address, to pinpoint the exact location. GIS is not only being used for planning cellular services, but also for AirFiber and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services,' Agendra Kumar, MD, Esri India, told
ETTelecom
.
'GIS will be a critical tool for telecom companies, and will remain like this. In the meantime, we are evolving our solutions with artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and large language models (LLMs),' Kumar said.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio worked with the Noida-headquartered company for the nationwide deployment of the JioAirFiber service using the Esri ArcGIS solution which enabled real-time visualisation and decision-making across Jio's teams in near real-time.
Today, Jio serves more than 200 million 5G subscribers, and has become the largest FWA provider globally with over 7.4 million users. It has a total of 20 million home connections. Previously, Esri had facilitated Jio to deploy 1 lakh 4G towers in a record time in 2016 using a GIS-driven workflow.
Likewise, Esri provided its ArcGIS Server-based platform to Airtel, enabling the Sunil Mittal-led telco to conduct hotspot analysis and network route planning on the web; access various web services in a thin client with Esri content; access GIS-based content and user management system; integrate with open source API with the Esri geospatial framework; and perform the raster analysis on telecom coverage files.
'Jio has effectively used GIS, even to resolve call drop problems, by planning network deployments, including 5G. They use GIS to manage the network. It's a complete GIS-based network management service for Jio,' Kumar said.
Biswaketan Kundu, vice president & head of GIS at Jio Platforms, in a statement, earlier said that quick planning and fast deployment helped Jio disrupt the broadband internet market by positioning AirFiber as a premium and affordable product with same-day installation time. 'Our continuous investment in GIS data, people, and Esri's technology helped us build these systems in-house at record speed,' he had said.
Esri, via its UK arm, works with the Vodafone Group Plc – the British co-parent company of India's third-largest telco – Vodafone Idea (Vi). Esri, however, does not have any business with Vi.
Esri would also consider supplying its solution to state-owned
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
(
BSNL
), when it starts the roll-out of its commercial 5G network. 'We would be happy to support them. We earlier worked on a rural network project of BSNL. So they are familiar with our technology,' Kumar said.
A Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)-led consortium, that comprises homegrown Tejas Networks and the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT), is currently deploying 1 lakh sites for BSNL's commercial 4G foray. Its network will be upgradable to 5G via a software firmware deployment.
Kumar said the GIS industry has been growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5%, but the National Geospatial Policy, geospatial data guidelines, use of remote sensing data and the drone policy have fueled the growth to 16.5% in recent years.
He added that Esri's roadmap for the next two years includes ramping up the use of AI & ML, and creating more datasets, while technologies such as digital twins and drone-based mapping will mature, which will in turn, generate more demand for GIS.
'Sectors such as infrastructure development, ports, and others will continue to give more business. There will be more investments in utilities, disaster management, defense and homeland security.'
Last month, Esri opened a 'GIS & AI Competency Center' at a new facility in Noida, and said it would invest more than ₹150 crores over the next five years.
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