India’s largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel entered into a strategic partnership with SK Telecom (SKT) to tap the South Korean mobile leader’s expertise to build the most advanced telecoms network in India.

The companies said they will collaborate on an ongoing basis to develop standards for 5G, network functions virtualisation, software-defined networking and IoT.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Airtel (pictured), said: “We are extremely delighted to announce this partnership with the world’s leading operator when it comes to technology understanding and expertise. This partnership will bring a dramatically improved experience to Airtel customers in India by leveraging the expertise of a company that has built one of the best mobile broadband networks in the world.”

SKT said in a statement the partnership will cover several areas, including developing bespoke software to improve network experience, leveraging advanced digital tools such as machine learning and big data, and building customised tools to improve network planning based on every customer’s device experience.

Airtel, with a 24 per cent share of the country’s mobile connections, faces intense competition from Reliance Jio, which launched India’s first nationwide 4G network a year ago, with generous free voice and data offers for six months.

The market share of India’s largest operator dropped by only 1 per cent over the past year, but its profitability suffered over the last three quarters with net profit in its fiscal Q1 (ending 30 June) dropping 75 per cent year-on-year to INR3.7 billion ($57 million).

Jio picked up 123 million subscribers between September 2016 and June 2017 and amassed a 10.5 per cent market share, according to GSMA Intelligence.