Bharti Airtel has solarised over 3,300 network sites in the last quarter and more than 28,000 sites over the past six quarters, reducing its carbon footprint while simultaneously lowering costs. Sustainability is a key focus of the company's ESG strategy, with connectivity in remote parts of India being the top priority, followed by emissions reduction. Airtel has also infused artificial intelligence (AI) into its network to automatically manage network and energy efficiency. "As a result, we are able to turn off layers of radio technology based on real-time traffic patterns, which reduce our carbon footprint and also lower our energy bill," said Bharti Airtel's Vice Chairman and Managing Director (MD), Gopal Vittal, during the company's Q3FY25 earnings call.
Also Read: Over Half of Airtel’s Network Sites Are Now Green
Implement Flapless Networks
Another key focus area for Airtel is enhancing customer experience. As India's second-largest telecom provider, the company is now investing in upgrading its existing network infrastructure to implement flapless networks.
Traditional networks often experience congestion or faulty routing, causing data packets to oscillate (flap) between routers, leading to inefficiencies and delays. Flapless networks eliminate this issue by ensuring deadlock-free routing and optimizing flow control.
"We are now making investments in upgrading existing network infrastructure to flapless networks, for lower latency and high reliability for critical customers who depend on it," Vittal said.
Also Read: Airtel Solarises Over 3,500 Mobile Sites in Q2
In-House AI and ML Network Tool
Additionally, Airtel's CEO said the company's in-house developed and operated AI ML tool, which is the Airtel Self Optimising Network, gives us a granular view down to a device level. "This has helped us deliver the best experience. We continue to win all the crowdsourced awards and network experience. The icing on the cake is that this also helps us lower power cost in the fly," Vittal added. He also noted that Airtel extensively uses data science and deploy digital tools to structurally resolve issues on the network.
AI-Driven Anti-Spam Network
The anti-spam tool has been able to help Airtel alert 252 million unique customers and effectively combat the spam menace. "Powered by our AI-driven network, this identifies over 1 million unique spammers making more than 130 million calls a day. That is roughly a trillion records that is processed on a daily basis. Additionally, our solution also detects over 7 million spam SMS's every day," Vittal added.
Also Read: Bharti Airtel Launches Green 5G Initiative to Enhance Energy Efficiency
Airtel's Future AI Roadmap
Furthermore, Airtel is accelerating efforts to integrate AI deeply within its operations, shifting from experimental use cases to making AI a core component of its infrastructure.
"We are now making a further pivot within the company to explore how we can move AI from experiments to make AI native at the core of the operation," the CEO said.
