Bharti Airtel is understood to have entered into an agreement with IBM for managing its IT and network-related services.
The deal size is likely to be over Rs 450 crore (Rs 4.5 billion) for a period of 10 years, sources in the know said.
When contacted, company officials declined to comment. This is the second time Sunil Mittal-promoted Bharti is outsourcing its IT operations to IBM. Earlier in 2004, Bharti had signed an outsourcing deal with IBM for about $ 750 million for a period of 10 years.
The deal involved outsourcing of Bharti's hardware, software and IT service requirements to IBM. Bharti has adopted a strategy of outsourcing operations of both IT-related services as well as network management services.
In network management, Ericsson and Nokia have been main partners of Bharti for different circles. The agreement is likely to include managed-hosting services and business resiliency and continuity services to enterprise customers in India.
The companies would jointly deliver end-to-end managed services, including connectivity, at client locations around the country, the sources said.