Bharti Airtel implemented photonic infrastructure designs from Ciena to almost triple optic fiber network capacity for delivering a world-class 5G experience to customers. Enabling faster deployment of exceptional services to webscale, large enterprise, government, and small/medium business customers requires a network that is high capacity, resilient, and adaptive. Rolling out 600G and 800G in metros – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Kolkata – allows Airtel to fast-track 5G and support high-growth cloud applications while lowering the cost per bit. To improve resiliency and service availability in cities where fiber cuts are common, Airtel has implemented a self-optimizing network design using an advanced C&L-band infrastructure with Layer 0 control plane with Ciena’s 6500 Reconfigurable Line System (RLS). Airtel can also proactively localize, troubleshoot, and rapidly repair fiber fault conditions with Ciena’s Liquid Spectrum PinPoint OTDR software analytics. Additionally, to maximize efficiency of the network and allow for quick turn up of new high-bandwidth services, Airtel has deployed WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optics along with Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller.