Bharti, Alcatel in $500 mn deal

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Thursday signed a five-year managed services deal valued at $500 million with Alcatel Lucent for its fixed-line and broadband operations.

The services would be managed by a joint venture in which Alcatel Lucent would hold 74 per cent, while the remaining 26 per cent would be held by Airtel, Bharti Airtel chief executive officer Manoj Kohli said.

The JV would be run by Alcatel Lucent with 4,000 employees, some of whom would come from the network management firm.

"The JV will manage Airtel's fixedline and broadband services," Kohli said.

Bharti has already outsourced its network management to Nokia Siemens and Ericsson in two different deals for its wireless business while its IT infrastructure is managed by IBM.