Bharti Airtel’s digital subsidiary Xtelify on Monday, August 4, marked its entry into the local cloud services market with the launch of a telco-grade platform called ‘Airtel Cloud’ in India.
The cloud platform was initially designed for Airtel’s own use in India. However, the telecom giant is now expanding Airtel Cloud access to businesses seeking data localisation solutions in the country.
Airtel Cloud is capable of handling 140 crore transactions per minute. The data is hosted on sustainable data centres that use generative AI to manage and allocate computing resources. It is overseen by 300 certified cloud experts. “The highly secure and reliable Airtel Cloud offers IaaS, PaaS and advanced connectivity and guarantees secure migration, effortless scaling, lower costs and no vendor lock-ins,” the company said in a press release.
Airtel’s announcement comes amid efforts by the Centre to position the country as a global hub for data centres. A report by International Data Corporation last year estimated the cloud services market in India to grow from $8.3 billion in 2023 to $24.2 billion by 2028.
Gopal Vittal, Vice Chairman and MD, Bharti Airtel, said that the company has been using Airtel Cloud to run applications and power over 590 million customer touchpoints. “All controls of our cloud will reside strictly within the country ensuring zero possibility of any entity outside India being able to access any part of this data or its working,” he said.
The telco on Monday also introduced a new AI-powered software platform that is designed to provide other telcos with solutions to improve customer experience, lower churn, and raise the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).
This platform comprises a suite of AI-powered software solutions such as a data engine called Xtelify Data Engine to provide other telecom service providers AI-generated insights at scale, a platform for streamlining tasks called Xtelify Work, a platform for managing customer experience called Xtelify Serve, and Xtelify IQ for real-time omnichannel customer engagement.
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Airtel said it has inked deals with three firms in Singapore, Philippines, and Africa to provide these services through the newly launched platform.
Singtel in Singapore will use the Xtelify Work platform for AI-led automation of tasks such as fleet optimisation, task management, real-time tracking and governance, etc. Meanwhile, Globe Telecom in Philippines has signed on to use Xtelify’s AI-powered customer services platform.
Airtel Africa will look to empower its 1,50,000 team of field agents with the Xtelify Data Engine, Xtelify Work, and Xtelify IQ platforms.
“It is a very pivotal moment in our history as we take our world class, home grown platforms of Airtel Cloud and software solutions to businesses in India and telcos all over the world. We are privileged to have signed on partnerships with three top tier companies already – Singtel, Globe Telecom and Airtel Africa,” Vittal further said.