Airtel's Network Experience Centre Goes Live

Bharti Airtel (Airtel), the telecommunications services provider with operations in 20 countries across South Asia and Africa, took a major technological leap in network management when its state-of-the-art Network Experience Centre (NEC) went live. The NEC, which is based in Manesar (Gurgaon), was inaugurated by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Kapil Sibal.

The NEC, which is the first of the its kind facility in India, will be able to monitor Airtel’s network performance across Mobile, Fixed Line and DSL Broadband, DTH, M-Commerce, Enterprise Services, International Cable Systems and Internet peering points from a single location. It will monitor all Airtel and partner NOCs and in case of any emergency, the operator will have a 360 degree view of any issue, thereby helping to prioritise actions to restore normalcy and reduce resolution time. This continuous stream of near real time data will in turn enable Airtel to deliver a superior customer experience across its product offerings.

The NEC houses one of the biggest video walls in the world with 3600 square feet of solid state LED screen to monitor Airtel’s telecom network. The clear span of the roof is 49 meters by 18 meters and the beams have been specially designed to hold the structure without columns. These beams are fireproof and about 8 feet deep. Designed specifically to be used as a command center in case of national emergencies and natural catastrophe, the earthquake proof facility also provides for a single control of command, and a fully redundant technology layout.

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Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel said, “Over the years, Airtel has been at the forefront of deploying the best technology to bring a world-class offering to customers. This new facility, sets the benchmark for telecom in South Asia, and will help us manage the layers of complex networks and technologies across our product matrix and massive scale of operations. Essentially, we will be able to analyse and deliver a seamless experience to over 200 million customers across our verticals from one location. In particular, this facility positions us to manage the expected surge in data usage on our 3G and 4G networks in years to come and deliver best-in-class experience to our customers.”

During the peak hour, Airtel connects nearly 6 million voice and over 5 million data customers, concurrently. 600 switching and routing centers process 80 Billion minutes of voice and 24 Petabytes of data traffic every month. This huge traffic comes from over 160,000 sites (2G,3G& 4G), through 150,000 kms of optical backbone, via 75,000 kms of undersea cable system and connects customers globally, through 17 global PoPs for voice and data.

This NEC now will be able to observe the end to end customer experience, in near real time, along with the standard network elements on this massive scale of operations.