New Delhi, Jan. 28 (BNA): Google will invest up to $1 billion in partnership with India’s Airtel to provide affordable smartphone access to more than 1 billion Indians and accelerate the use of cloud computing for business, the two companies said. Friday.
In a blog post, Google said the investment will help small businesses in India adopt digital tools as India works to embrace digital education, payments and e-commerce amid the pandemic.
As part of the ‘Google for India Digitization Fund’ launched in 2020, Google will pay $700 million to acquire a 1.28% stake in Airtel. Airtel said in a statement that it will also commit up to $300 million in commercial agreements over the next five years.
She added that the two companies also plan to jointly develop software for 5G networks and other standards.
Airtel is an Indian global provider of communications solutions with more than 480 million customers in 17 countries across South Asia and Africa, according to the AP.
Google services are accessed by more than 100 million users in India. It has faced legal issues with the Competition Commission of India which said the company had abused the dominant position of its Android platform in the smart TV market segment.
The regulators stress that smart TV makers have no alternative to Android, and therefore they are obligated to install Google apps.
Google has denied any violations, saying its licensing practices comply with the law.
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