Airtel, Tech Mahindra to deploy private 5G at Mahindra's Pune manufacturing facility

Bharti Airtel has teamed up with Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Auto to deploy private 5G solution at the latter’s Chakan manufacturing facility in Pune, making it India’s first 5G enabled auto manufacturing unit. 

Private 5G is wireless network technology that delivers cellular connectivity for private network use cases, such as private businesses.

The deployment of the captive private network has significantly enhanced Chakan’s network connectivity resultinh in improved speeds for software flashing, a critical operation for all vehicular dispatches, the telco said in a statement.  

High network speeds and ultra-low-latency now allows managers to undertake multiple software flashing sessions in parallel, which has resulted in reduced turn-around time for an operation. Further, the computerised vision-based inspection is now fully automated resulting in improved paint quality. 

The company has been testing use cases and spectrum delivery with multiple partners and at several locations as a part of its #5GforBusiness offerings, which has resulted in reduced turn-around time for an operation. In July, Airtel had trialled a private 5G network at a Bosch facility in Bengaluru, using the trial 5G spectrum allotted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). 

“As the industry 4.0 paradigm gathers momentum, reliable data networks will prove to be a key differentiator in factory and manufacturing performances,” Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business, said, adding that the company “will showcase many more innovative use cases that will help redefine manufacturing in India”. 

“Our collaboration with Airtel is aimed at enhancing customer experience through digitally powered new-age platforms and solutions,” Manish Vyas, President, Communications, Media and Entertainment Business, and CEO, Network Services, Tech Mahindra, said.  

“We are confident that this partnership will help unlock opportunities across industries to improve productivity, drive intelligent network-led enterprise digitalisation, and spur innovation,” he said. 

India’s connected car market is expected to grow by more than 20% in the next five years, according to a Deloitte study. The auto market has already started to adapt to several advancements such as ADAS (advanced driver assistant system), and mobile app-based controls. As the Indian market is geared up for 5G, the next generation of mobile broadband, the auto sector along with many other industries are expected to see huge growth, it said.