Airtel to bring more women engineers on board for 5G rollout

Airtel 5G is currently available in up to 12 Indian cities, including Delhi, Siliguri, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Varanasi, Mumbai, Nagpur and Chennai, Gurugram, Panipat and Guwahati. With the goal of launching its 5G Plus service nationwide in early 2024, Airtel is investing in upskilling its workforce for smooth and efficient 5G deployment. The operator is looking for diversity and aims to bring more women engineers on board.

In an interview with the Economic Times, Amrita Padda, chief people officer at Bharti Airtel, said the company is working to attract more women engineers by offering them the support they need, such as remote work and more. "We help set up their workspace at home, for example. We realise it is important to hire the right people for the job and retain them. This programme is a step towards that and part of our diversity initiative," said Padda.

The telecom operator plans to upskill employees through extensive internal courses, like CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) and CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional), under the 5G Academy and IP Academy initiatives, which will launch in 2021. "Nearly 20,000 professionals in the Airtel ecosystem have been trained in the basics of IP technology in preparation for the 5G rollout," Padda noted. She revealed that both existing upgraded employees and new hires for 5G-related profiles are expected to increase 25 per cent by the end of 2022-23.

Earlier, Airtel revealed that its 5G services will be rolled out nationwide in March 2024. At present, Airtel 5G Plus is available for free as the company has yet to reveal any 5G plans. We expect the telecom operator to launch new 5G plans, which are expected to be more expensive than 4G plans, in the coming months.