Bharti Airtel added Ericsson to the list of vendors providing equipment for its fixed wireless access (FWA) service, tapping the Swedish company for core infrastructure the pair expect to improve the quality and reliability.

Ericsson stated it is bringing a unique platform to Airtel’s table to provide high capacity FWA in a smaller footprint and with benefits around total cost of ownership.

The set-up relies on an existing 5G core network arrangement between Ericsson and Airtel and is another win for the vendor after securing a multi-year managed services contract with the operator in June.

Airtel CTO Randeep Sekhon said Ericsson’s FWA core platform is a “foundational enhancement” and the deployment is “specifically designed to accommodate rapidly increasing customer data requirements”.

Earlier this year, Airtel tasked Nokia with providing other equipment for its FWA service, which debuted in 2023.