Airtel in outsourcing deal with Alcatel?

NEW DELHI, INDIA: India’s leading telecom company Bharti Airtel has reportedly finalized an outsourcing deal where French-American networks major Alcatel Lucent to manage, build and operate Bharti’s fixedline operations.

According to a CNBC-TV18 report, Bharti Airtel has taken an in-principle decision to this effect and an announcement in this regard is imminent.

As part of the deal nearly 4,000 Bharti Airtel employees, who currently handle its landline business on to its roles, would be transferred to a new joint venture between the two companies, said reports.

Reports estimate the value of the deal to be in the range of $ 200-300 million spread over two years.

Bharti Airtel has over 2.7 million wireline and broadband customers. The telecom player's IT operations are handled by IBM.