Bharti Airtel to outsource last mile connectivity

Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest private telecom service provider, is in discussions to outsource its last mile connectivity of its broadband operations. The company is in discussions with two infrastructure service providers, Alcatel-Lucent and Cisco for outsourcing contracts. 

The company provides broadband services through its subsidiary, Bharti Telemedia. Last mile is the final leg of delivering connectivity from an operators’ end to the customer’s place, in case of broadband services this can be either over wireless or through wired lines.

Outsourcing last mile operations will help the company concentrate on its core competencies, even as it will help in reducing cost of operations. Moreover, as last mile connectivity needs a lot a approvals (in case of wired connections), this will help in reducing time to reach customers, sources close to the development said.

When contacted an Airtel spokesperson said: "Developing a strong partner ecosystem is part of Airtel’s unique business strategy. However as a company policy, we do not comment on any market speculation."

Alcatel-Lucent President (India) Vivek Mohan declined to comment on the development, and Cisco executives could not be immediately contacted for comments.

Over the past five years, Bharti Airtel had signed around seven outsourcing deals, most of them with global IT major IBM. In 2004, Airtel awarded a $750-million outsourcing deal to IBM, which was later increased to $2.5 billion as of March 2009.

In 2008, IBM’s BPO arm IBM Daksh, bagged a six-year contract to provide voice and back-office services, including customer service from Bharti.