New Delhi, Feb 26 : Telecom major Bharti Airtel Ltd. on Wednesday said that it is holding bilateral discussions with the Tata Group for a potential merger between Tata Play's Direct To Home business and its subsidiary Bharti Telemedia.

The statement to the stock exchanges came in response to a media report stating the Tata and Bharti Groups are "near a mega DTH merger".

"We wish to submit that Bharti Airtel Limited ('Airtel') and Tata Group are in bilateral discussions to explore a potential transaction to achieve a combination of Tata Group's Direct To Home ('DTH') business housed under Tata Play Limited, with Bharti Telemedia Limited, a subsidiary of Airtel, in a structure acceptable to all parties," Airtel said in the statement to the exchanges.

However, Airtel emphasised that "the above is at a discussion stage only".

The media report cited sources as saying the merged entity is expected to be run by Bharti Airtel, which will likely hold between 52-55 per cent with the remaining held by Tata Play shareholders, including Walt Disney.

Tata Play, a 70:30 venture between Tata Sons and Disney, and Airtel had a combined 35 million paid subscribers as of last September, more than half the 60 million subscribers industry-wide at the time, official data showed.

The two businesses are being approximately valued between Rs 6,000 crore to Rs 7,000 crore each, according to the media report.

In a separate development, Airtel has announced its collaboration with Ericsson to roll out 5G Standalone (SA) network technology. This partnership aims to enhance Airtel's network capabilities, ensuring a seamless transition to a full-scale commercial 5G SA network over time.

Ericsson will be supplying key 5G equipment to telecom operator Bharti Airtel for a seamless transition to a commercially live, full-scale 5G Standalone (SA) network over time.

"Ericsson's enduring partnership with Airtel has entered an exciting new phase, marked by the deployment of Ericsson's 5G core solutions to support Airtel's transition to 5G Standalone. This rollout will play a pivotal role in Airtel's long-term 5G strategy, boosting network capacity and enabling the delivery of innovative, differentiated services to customers," Airtel's Chief Technology Officer Randeep Sekhon said.

The new capabilities represent a strategic enhancement to Bharti Airtel's 5G monetisation efforts, enabling the development of new business models, Ericsson said.

In the SA mode, the network is built only on 5G, whereas in the NSA mode, the 5G network operates as a top-up on an existing layer of the 4G and 3G radio network.

As part of the agreement, Ericsson will deploy its signalling controller solution within Airtel's network. Ericsson's 5G SA-enabled charging and policy solution will also be introduced. These new capabilities represent a strategic enhancement to Bharti Airtel's 5G monetisation efforts, enabling the development of new business models.

/IANS