Bharti Airtel has formed a strategic partnership with IntelliSmart Infrastructure Pvt Ltd to power up to 20 million smart meters
This partnership also marks Airtel’s foray into high end applications such as Advance Metering Infrastructure and meter data management systems along with Cloud and Analytics, a release from Airtel said.
“This is the largest such deal in the smart metering space in the country. It will significantly contribute towards Airtel’s fast-growing IoT deployment across sectors,” the release noted.
Airtel IoT Hub
Airtel’s IoT proposition includes its proprietary platform the “Airtel IoT Hub” which will help the utility track and monitor these smart meters with advanced analytics while maintaining extremely high reliability augmented with telco grade security. Housed on Airtel’s own cloud network, the IoT hub will allow enterprise users the capability to connect and manage billions of devices and applications in a highly secure and seamless fashion.
Strengthening leadership
Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, CEO, Airtel Business (India) said about the venture, “We have further strengthened our market leadership as the largest IoT enabler in the country. IoT is one of the fastest-growing business segments for Airtel Business and, with this deal, we are now strategically positioned to play a pivotal role in driving the Govt. of India’s vision of digitising 250 million conventional meters to smart meters.”
Strategic partner
According to Anil Rawal, MD & CEO, Intellismart Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, “As we set forward to implement one of India’s largest portfolios of smart meters, we are relying on some of the most able and potent partners in the sector for various solution elements to support the successful deployment of our Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) solutions. We are confident that the on-boarding of Airtel as a strategic partner will be a significant step towards our goal of creating strong associations to strengthen our infrastructure solution with a resilient and secure cloud-hosted cellular communication network.”
Enabling government vision
The Government of India has the ambitious vision of replacing 250 million conventional meters with smart meters in the next five years as part of the AMI initiative. Airtel IoT aims to play a pivotal role in enabling this vision of the government with its unique capabilities. Power sector digitisation aided by the Government of India’s push to usher in transparency and consumer friendly measures in this sector will see innovation such as smart meters become commonplace, the Airtel release added.
Also read: Airtel Business Wins Smart Metering Mandate From Tata Power
Featured photograph (source: IntelliSmart) is for representation only
