Bharti Selects IBM SDP

NEW DELHI -- Reinforcing its commitment to innovation, BhartiAirtel, India’s leading telecom service provider, today announced that ithas partnered with IBM to deliver India’s first ‘Service Delivery Platform’(SDP). This platform will enable Airtel to deliver a suite of unique,innovative products, services and applications, to its over 25 millioncustomer base which is currently growing at a rate of more than one millioncustomers every month, spanning mobile, landline and broadband services.Airtel is investing over USD 100 Million in this world class deliveryplatform.

The implementation of SDP will enable Bharti Airtel to have an integratedenvironment that will incorporate all of Airtel’s content and applicationsservices under one platform. Airtel’s customers can now get the benefit ofa complete service experience through service personalisation, singleaccess point, single sign-on to its mobile, landline as well as broadbandand enterprise customers across the country. With this implementation,Bharti Airtel will become the first service provider in India to have acomprehensive service delivery platform. IBM will develop, manage andoperate this Service Delivery Platform (SDP) for Bharti Airtel.

Announcing the agreement, Mr. Manoj Kohli, President, Bharti Airtel Ltd.said “The launch of Service Delivery Platform is yet another first fromAirtel and an important component of our innovation strategy for theintegrated ‘One Airtel’. The platform will be the gateway to nextgeneration content services for our customers and help us consolidate ourleadership position.”

The SDP is a recognised market leading global telecom framework, which isbased on open standards and with proven implementations at telecomcompanies around the world. The SDP shall enhance the spectrum of content,application and services and integrate them across all of Bharti’s servicelines and present a consistent presentation of services to the customers,who then shall be able to access through multiple channels viz. SMS, MMS,WAP, Web, broad band. The customers shall also be able to personalize thiscatalogue. The content delivered to the customers shall also be morefriendly and customized as per the capability of their devices. The SDP isa comprehensive solution that integrates several ISV packages through IBM’smiddleware framework running over several hardware server and storageplatforms.

The content providers to Bharti Airtel shall also benefit significantlywith the Service Delivery Platform. They shall be able to publish contentonce and distribute through multiple channels – SMS, MMS, WAP, Web, etc.Bulk uploading of content, along with protection of digital content shallalso be possible now. In addition, the content providers shall be able totest new devices and content services prior to launch. The reconciliationand settlement process shall also be automated.

In addition, SDP would fuel the creation of a Bharti Airtel applicationdeveloper community through standard interfaces that will allow newservices to simply plug into this platform and run seamlessly across themobile and broadband networks.

The Service Delivery Platform will cover integrated portal, contentmanagement, digital rights management, transcoding systems, messaginggateway and applications parlay gateway.

Mr. Satish Khatu, General Manager, Global Technology Services, IBM AsiaPacific said, “Differentiation is key to survival and winning. IBM’stechnology and services expertise along with our experience of working withTelcos across the globe, allows us to deliver one of the most comprehensiveService Delivery Platform for Bharti Airtel. This implementation allowsBharti to offer significantly enhanced spectrum of content and value-addedservices to its customers, enabling them to continue to maintain theircompetitive advantage and leadership in the marketplace and deliver anenhanced user experience.”

Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Mumbai: BHARTIARTL)