Bharti Airtel and IBM will work together to deploy the Sunil Mittal-led telco’s edge computing platform ahead of the latter’s 5G network rollouts in key cities.

They will deploy 120 network data centers across 20 cities, which will enable large enterprises across multiple industries, including manufacturing and automotive to accelerate solutions securely at the edge.

Airtel believes Edge computing can be significantly enhanced with 5G. In India, it has the potential to cross $1 trillion in value by 2035, estimates the firm.

Maruti Suzuki has signed up for the edge computing service and intends to use the edge platform to increase accuracy and efficiency for quality inspections on the factory floor, Airtel, IBM and Maruti said in a joint statement.

“As India gears up to experience 5G, we see a massive opportunity to help businesses across industries transform how they deliver goods and services. We have the largest network of edge data centers available in India under the Nxtra brand and we will leverage our work with IBM to help Indian businesses address their critical business needs with greater efficiency, making it significantly easier for companies to process workloads where their data resides,” Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, CEO (enterprise), Airtel Business said.

By deploying this platform, Maruti Suzuki expects to boost quality control and ensure their data remains protected at the edge.

“We are excited to work with Airtel Business and IBM to set an even higher benchmark and explore the vast possibilities of deploying AI and analytics at the edge to augment the expertise of our workforce,” Rajesh Uppal, Senior Executive Director (HR and IT), Maruti Suzuki said .

IBM Consulting will lead the systems integration for the IBM platform. Airtel and IBM Consulting will also work together to develop new use cases that leverage Airtel’s 5G connectivity and IBM’s hybrid cloud capabilities to address the pressing business issues faced by enterprise clients.

“Teaming with Airtel to bring IBM’s hybrid cloud offerings to their Indian multi-access edge compute customers will help them embrace the opportunities presented by 5G and edge, like innovating with greater speed and security," Howard Boville, Head of IBM Cloud Platform.

Airtel recently signed deals worth over $2.5 billion, with Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung for sourcing equipment and infrastructure for its 5G network, expected to roll out later this year starting from the key metro cities.