Airtel launches Airtel BlueJeans video conferencing platform, teams up with Verizon
The platform can accommodate 50,000 attendees, and is simple and intuitive to use, Bharti Airtel CEO, India and South Asia, Gopal Vittal said.
India's second largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel on Tuesday announced the launch of video conferencing platform 'Airtel BlueJeans' in partnership with US telecom giant Verizon.
"Airtel BlueJeans is a secure, safe platform and we are committed to end user privacy," Bharti Airtel CEO, India and South Asia, Gopal Vittal said at a conference.
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The platform can accommodate 50,000 attendees, and is simple and intuitive to use, Vittal said.
The "first port of call" for the offering is enterprise, Vittal said, but added that the company would also be looking at packaging it for small office.
"And there is no reason why we will not look at bundling it with home broadband to home users," he said.
Hosting of data will take place in India and the company is committed to enterprise grade security and privacy of customers, he added.
The offering will be free for the first three months, after which "very competitive" price will be charged, Vittal said.
With the latest move, Airtel takes on competition from Zoom and JioMeet.
Earlier in April, Verizon Business had announced the acquisition of enterprise-grade video-conferencing and event software BlueJeans Network.
California-based BlueJeans is one of the earliest cloud-based video conferencing services in the world. Since 2009, it has served a wide spectrum of users — from large enterprises and small organisations to MNCs and state authorities.
The platform's usage has grown significantly after coronavirus-induced lockdowns resulted in a "work-from-home surge" across the world.
"The transaction will combine BlueJeans’ simple, smart and trusted meeting platform with Verizon’s unified communications as a service business immediately. Customers will benefit from a BlueJeans enterprise-grade video experience on Verizon’s high-performance global networks," Verizon Business said in a statement.
Additionally, BlueJeans will also be "deeply integrated" into Verizon’s 5G product plans, and will offer secure and real-time engagement solutions to organisations engaged in high-growth areas like telemedicine, distance learning, field work, and so on.
(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)
Edited by Javed Gaihlot
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