Reliance Plans to Outsource Management of Wired Services

Reliance Communications Ltd. plans to outsource the management of its wired services network in a deal likely to be worth more than $750 million, a company executive said Wednesday.

"We want to outsource voice and data wired transport network (the fixed-line network). The contract is to maintain and manage all parts of this network, including the towers, power and cable networks," Sandip Biswas, head of managed services at Reliance Communications, told Dow Jones Newswires.

He said the contract for wired services is likely to be bigger than the $750 million, five-year outsourcing order given last year for its wireless network to a joint venture between Reliance Communications and France’s Alcatel-Lucent.

The joint venture, in which Alcatel-Lucent has a 67% stake, will be among the bidders for the new contract, Mr. Biswas said.

He said Reliance is likely to first implement the system for the wired services network on an experimental basis in 5-10 service areas in the next three months, and then cover the entire country in the subsequent three months.

Reliance Communications, part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, is India’s second-largest mobile services provider by subscriber base.

At the end of May, the company had 1.12 million fixed-line phone subscribers, according to data on the Web site of India’s telecom regulator. The company provides also national and international long distance voice, video and data network services.

Earlier Wednesday, Alcatel-Lucent said it will double its revenue from its Indian operations by the end of this year.

"We are on course to double India revenue by the year end, and it is not on a small base as you think," Sean Dolan, Alcatel-Lucent’s president for Asia-Pacific, told Dow Jones Newswires.

"We may now want to consolidate some of our offices here in India."

Alcatel-Lucent’s revenue from its Indian operations last year wasn’t available.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124644515537679013.html