Airtel Partners With Google Cloud, Cisco Launches “Airtel Office Internet” For Small Businesses

NEW DELHI — Indian telecommunications services firm Bharti Airtel on Aug. 5. announced the launch of ‘Airtel Office Internet’ — a unified enterprise-grade solution for emerging digital connectivity needs of small businesses, SOHOs, and early-stage tech start-ups. 

Airtel has partnered with Google Cloud and Cisco for the initiative. 

In a regulatory filing, the company said that Airtel Office Internet will provide users secure high-speed data connectivity, conferencing, and business productivity tools as a unified solution with one plan and one bill.

“More than ever, emerging businesses across India are looking for reliable connectivity and digital productivity tools that enhance their agility, efficiency and enable them to serve their customers better,” Airtel said in a press release. 

“Importantly, these businesses want to access these solutions with the convenience of a single relationship.”

Among the services that Airtel Office Internet will provide Fiber to the home (FTTH) broadband with symmetric speeds up to 1 Gbps along with unlimited local/STD calling. 

The superfast and reliable connectivity comes with built-in enterprise-grade security from Cisco and Kaspersky to block malicious and unwanted domains, viruses, crypto-lockers, and attacks, Airtel said. 

“The pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation journeys of businesses of all sizes,” said Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business. 

“Emerging businesses are looking for trusted partners to help them in their journeys by eliminating the complexity of managing multiple relationships. Airtel Office Internet is yet another innovation from Airtel in this direction. It brings together Airtel’s network and world-class partner ecosystem to bring to market tailor-made solutions for India’s unique needs.”

Airtel will also provide Complimentary Google Workspace licenses that allow businesses to use Gmail for all professional email communication along with an entire range of productivity and collaboration tools from Google. 

“Telecommunications firms are increasingly differentiating by offering a wide range of tools that are helping Indian businesses accelerate their digital transformation with the cloud,” said Bikram Singh Bedi, Managing Director at Google Cloud India. 

“The combination of Google Workspace’s collaboration and productivity tools combined with Airtel’s robust pan-India connectivity solutions will be a great growth enabler for small businesses in India.” 

With growing requirements for video conferencing, Airtel Office Internet also offers a free Airtel BlueJeans license for unlimited and secure conferencing with HD quality.

It will provide a digital self-serve portal for businesses to manage all these services in one place. 

Plans start at INR 999 ($13.47) with a range of add-on services like Static IPs and parallel ringing. 

 “As the threat landscape grows exponentially, cybersecurity becomes an urgent challenge for any business, regardless of size,” said Daisy Chittilapilly, President, Cisco India & SAARC. 

“This is particularly true for small businesses, given that they typically operate with limited resources and investments. Our partnership with Airtel is built on our joint vision of enabling enterprise-grade security for small businesses, grounded in AI and automation, so they can focus on areas that will have the biggest impact on their recovery and growth.” 

(With inputs from ANI)
Edited by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Praveen Pramod Tewari