Airtel Business, the B2B arm of Bharti Airtel, announced that it has secured a multi-year contract from the Indian Railway Security Operations Centre (IRSOC) to deliver comprehensive, industry-leading security services aimed at safeguarding the digital backbone of India's railway network. Airtel said it will design, build, implement and operate a greenfield, multi-layered, cybersecurity 24X7, 365-day protection ecosystem that will serve as a resilient defence barrier to safeguard the Indian Railways' IT backbone, while ensuring uninterrupted, secure and seamless digital operation.
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Defense for Indian Railways' Digital Infrastructure
"Over 1 billion Indians will benefit from the enhanced data security for seamless ticket booking, payments, train tracking and more," Airtel said in an exchange filing.
"Our robust security layer will advance security efficiency in ticketing and data management, shield all railway digital operations from evolving cyber threats while delivering safe and seamless digital services to millions of daily railway commuters," said Sharat Sinha, the CEO and Director of Airtel Business.
Dilip Kumar, Executive Director (Information and Planning) — Railway Board, said the establishment of IRSOC will help provide a centralised security operations centre to continuously monitor Indian Railways assets, detect and respond to cybersecurity threats efficiently, gather threat intelligence, and ensure proper collaboration with National Cyber Security Agencies.
"Further, streamlining the operation and maintenance of information technology-related assets will improve service delivery and safeguard the interests of passengers by providing uninterrupted services," Kumar added.
Airtel Business said that with advanced and centralised security controls, it will build multi-layer protection to secure the database of the railways. The company will also safeguard end-to-end digital operations across the railway network, which includes 160,000 employees distributed across 26 locations.
"The technology stack will include market leader technologies along with cutting-edge Make in India cybersecurity products, and deliver a sovereign, fully compliant and AI-embedded security ecosystem tailored for critical infrastructure protection," Airtel Business added.
Airtel Business noted that, with Airtel Secure, Indian Railways will benefit from a centralised security architecture that delivers unified compliance and visibility, AI-driven advanced endpoint protection, robust patch and vulnerability management, next-generation monitoring, and strong network and access controls.
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Airtel Business Partnership with Swift Navigation
Airtel Business also recently announced a strategic partnership with precise-positioning-technology company Swift Navigation to launch India's first AI/ML-powered, cloud-based location service, Airtel-Skylark Precise Positioning Service. This service will improve accuracy by up to 100 times when compared to standard Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Airtel said in a statement on September 30, 2025.
According to Airtel's whitepaper, standard GNSS systems like GPS have inherent limitations. Atmospheric interference, satellite clock errors, and other disturbances typically result in positional errors of 5–10 meters. Together with Swift Navigation, Airtel has launched a GNSS corrections service that enhances location accuracy from meters to centimetres.
Airtel-Skylark Precise Positioning Service
Airtel Business said its exclusive partnership with Swift Navigation will bring Skylark together with Airtel's pan-India-resilient 4G/5G network to deliver a reliable and easily accessible centimetre-level-accurate positioning service for mission-critical, location-based applications for large-scale deployment.
Sharat Sinha, Director and CEO – Airtel Business, said: "In a country like ours, with intricate lanes and by-lanes, every centimetre makes a difference in identifying a precise location or address, especially for critical services like first responders. By partnering with Swift Navigation, we are proud to launch India's first cloud-based, AI/ML-powered GNSS corrections service, delivering centimetre-level precision. This breakthrough technology will not only revolutionise emergency responses and set new benchmarks for industrial applications but will also fast-track innovations in use cases like autonomous mobility and satellite-based toll collections."
Holger Ippach, EVP of Product and Marketing – Swift Navigation, added: "By leveraging Airtel's presence across IoT solutions and services, we are enabling businesses and developers across the country to seamlessly adopt precise positioning for automation and autonomy."
How it Works
Corrections are applied to observations received on GNSS-enabled devices to improve positional accuracy—potentially down to just a few centimeters. Airtel’s precise positioning service fundamentally enhances the quality of raw GNSS data received by a device.
In India, Airtel is deploying and operating a network of Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS), which Skylark uses to model corrections in the cloud and deliver high-accuracy positioning with seamless availability across the country. The resulting stream of corrective data is delivered via Airtel’s nationwide IoT network.
Airtel said a wide range of industries will be able to harness this high-accuracy service to power applications such as tolling, emergency response, digital mapping, construction, utilities, fleet management and autonomous vehicles—driving innovation, efficiency and quicker responses in services across India's urban and rural landscapes.
Transforming Industries with Precise Positioning
The company noted that this technology is a game-changer for sectors critical to India's economic growth, including Automotive and Transportation, Mobile and Consumer Apps, Smart Tolling, Logistics and Last-Mile Delivery, Map-Making and Digital Twins, GIS Mapping and Land Surveying, Construction and Utilities, Micromobility, and Railways.
"Power precision agriculture by providing exact positioning for automated tractors, seeders, and sprayers. This allows farmers to optimise the use of water, fertiliser, and pesticides, boosting crop yields and sustainability," Airtel noted.
This partnership positions Airtel Business as a leader in India's precise-positioning market, the company said, adding that the initial phase will launch a 35,000 km2 network around the National Capital Region (NCR) later this year. The network will then be rolled out to other parts of the country in phases very soon after.
Airtel will showcase its Precise Positioning offering at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2025, scheduled for October 8–11, 2025.
