Bharti Airtel : Airtel and Google Cloud Enter into a Long-Term Strategic Collaboration to Accelerate Cloud Adoption and Deploy Generative AI Solutions

• Companies to work together on joint go-to-market, combining Airtel's leading connectivity and distribution channels with Google Cloud's AI technologies

• Airtel has developed an industry-leading IoT solution that combines connectivity, Google Cloud AI services, and application software

• Airtel has established a dedicated managed services center in Pune with more than 300 experts who will be trained to champion both Google Cloud and digital services

Gurugram, India, May 13, 2024 - Bharti Airtel ("Airtel") and Google Cloud today entered into a long-term collaboration to deliver cloud solutions to Indian businesses. The strategic collaboration will offer a suite of cutting-edge cloud solutions from Google Cloud to fast-track cloud adoption and modernization for Airtel's customers. In addition, Airtel will provide a suite of cloud managed services to its customer base of more than 2,000 large enterprises and one million emerging businesses. Through this collaboration, the two companies are targeting the large and growing Indian public cloud services market, which is expected to reach $17.8 billion by 2027, according to IDC.^*

The two companies will bring together their unique strengths of connectivity and AI technology to develop industry-leading AI/ML solutions that Airtel will train on its large data set. These unique solutions will drive greater value to Airtel's customers and will include geospatial analytics solutions with advanced location intelligence for trend-spotting, predictive capabilities, market assessment, site selection, risk management, and asset tracking; voice analytics solutions for superior conversational applications trained across languages; and marketing technology solutions to forecast consumer behavior, perform tailored audience segmentations, and streamline content creation with high-precision contextual ads at reduced costs.

In addition to these offerings, Airtel has developed an end-to-end IoT solution designed for the utility sector that combines connectivity, Google Cloud services, and application software under one offering, enabling seamless, hassle-free, and faster deployment.

To power its cloud-based solutions business, Airtel has set-up a managed services center in Pune with 300+ experts who are being extensively trained to champion Google Cloud services and develop world-class tech solutions.

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO, Bharti Airtel, said: "As India accelerates its digital transformation, cutting-edge cloud and AI solutions will be at the heart and center of this change. We are happy to partner with Google Cloud and jointly address this market opportunity with secure and scalable Cloud solutions for government, enterprises, and emerging businesses. Together, we will also accelerate the deployment of gen AI in the country and unlock its potential to solve problems."

Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud, added: "Our strategic collaboration with Airtel marks a significant milestone towards our commitment to accelerate cloud and AI adoption in India. Through this partnership, we aim to explore and build transformative solutions that can enhance Airtel's customer experiences."

Airtel will also leverage Google Cloud's gen AI capabilities to transform its customer experiences and interactions across its offerings of mobile, broadband, and digital TV, and to streamline its internal processes and operations. Airtel will also extend these capabilities to its B2B customers in India and globally.

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About Bharti Airtel

Headquartered in India, Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 500 million customers in 17 countries across South Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its networks cover over two billion people. Airtel is India's largest integrated communications solutions provider and the second largest mobile operator in Africa. Airtel's retail portfolio includes high-speed 4G/5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber that promises speeds up to 1 Gbps with convergence across linear and on-demand entertainment, streaming services spanning music and video, digital payments and financial services. For enterprise customers, Airtel offers a gamut of solutions that includes secure connectivity, cloud and data center services, cyber security, IoT, Ad Tech and cloud-based communication. For more details, visit www.airtel.com

About Google Cloud

Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.