Bharti Airtel and Alcatel-Lucent Form Managed Services Joint Venture for Broadband and Telephone

[Raditz]

"PARIS and NEW DELHI, April 30 Alcatel-LucentPARIS and NEW DELHI, April 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --- JV Will Manage Airtel's Migration to Next Generation Networks (NGN) toOffer Advanced Services Like High-Speed Internet, Triple Play, Media-RichVAS, MPLS, VPN for Both Retail and Business Customers- First Managed Services Partnership for Broadband and Telephone Servicesin IndiaBharti Airtel, Asia's leading integrated telecom service provider, andAlcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that they haveformed a joint venture to manage Bharti Airtel's pan-India broadband andtelephone services and help Airtel's transition to next generation networks.Under the joint venture, Alcatel-Lucent will design, plan, deploy, optimizeand manage Bharti Airtel's broadband and telephone network across India. Anew legal entity is being formed which will be operated by Alcatel-Lucent.Commenting on the partnership, Manoj Kohli, CEO & Joint ManagingDirector, Bharti Airtel said, "This joint venture is another step towardsBharti Airtel's vision to continuously redefine and deliver the benchmarks ofcustomer experience. We will leverage Alcatel-Lucent's global expertise in IPtransformation and network management while allowing us to focus on customerdelivery and market growth.""It will also help us accelerate performances as we migrate to nextgeneration networks for our broadband and telephone customers, opening thedoor to advanced services and applications," he added."We appreciate the opportunity that Bharti Airtel has given us todemonstrate our worldwide expertise in network transformation, managednetwork services and IP transformation," said Ben Verwaayen, CEO ofAlcatel-Lucent. "The expansion of our relationship is drawn on our strengthsas a global services player, ready to partner with innovative customers intheir business transformation plans," he added.This managed services partnership will include all end-to-end activities- service rollout, installation and fault repair, service continuity andtransformation. It will support Bharti Airtel's transformation to nextgeneration networks, offering advanced services like high-speed internet,triple play, media-rich VAS, MPLS, VPN for both retail and businesscustomers. The partnership will also drive optimal capital investment andincrease operational efficiency by moving voice and data traffic onto asingle, 'packetized' infrastructure.SOURCE Alcatel-Lucent