Bharti Airtel has awarded a $500 million outsourcing deal to Alcatel-Lucent. The deal covers management and servicing of Airtel's broadband and fixed line network for five years. It involves the creation of a joint venture (JV), with Alcatel-Lucent holding 76 per cent equity and Bharti holding the remaining 24 per cent.

The new entity will have about 4,000 employees, the majority of them coming from Airtel. It will be responsible for all end-to-end activities like service rollout, installation and fault repair, and service continuity. The JV will manage only Airtel's network and not deal with other companies.