India, Dec. 8 -- Bharti Airtel and Google have reportedly partnered to deploy Rich Communication Services (RCS) on Airtel's network, marking a significant step towards expanding the technology's footprint in India. Through Google's infrastructure, Airtel will be able to provide RCS, positioned as the next-generation successor to SMS, to its customers.

20 revenue-sharing model with Google, Airtel is expected to charge Rs 0.11 per RCS message. The companies have also agreed to integrate RCS traffic with Airtel's AI-driven spam filter, a requirement that had previously delayed the partnership.

Until recently, Airtel had resisted enabling RCS through Google or Apple, arguing that encrypted channels could allow spam traffic to circumvent exi...