Bharti

Airtel and IBM announce new services partnership

Airtel’s new IT vision defines next generation of services leveraging IBM’s expertise

New Delhi, April 2, 2014: Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), a global telecommunications services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, and IBM (IBM: NYSE) today announced they have signed a new agreement to manage Airtel’s infrastructure and application services in India over the next five years. This agreement builds on the 10 year relationship between the two organisations which has driven the co-creation of industry leading telco solutions and customer-centric services.

The agreement is based on Airtel’s new IT vision that defines the next generation of services for its ever-growing customer base and to offer best in class services to its customers through solutions leveraging cutting edge technology. As part of the new vision, Airtel is also building in-house capabilities and a strong partner eco-system, and has selected IBM to manage the IT infrastructure and applications for its operations in India.

The new model offers Airtel greater flexibility to scale services and adapt in real-time to changing market dynamics and offer a differentiated customer experience leveraging IBM's industry solutions and global experience.

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO, Bharti Airtel (India & South Asia) said, “As we embark on the next phase of Airtel's growth journey, I am confident that the agreement with IBM will help us offer innovative and cutting edge products and services to our customers, enabling us achieve our vision of being the most loved brand.”

Vanitha Narayanan, Managing Director, IBM India, said, “In the last decade, Bharti’s customer base has increased from a few million to over 285 million. Airtel partnered with IBM to drive this growth, by using technology to respond with intuitive offers for customers, managing service delivery, and improving organisational efficiency. This pioneering partnership will continue to bring innovation to Airtel’s customers, which is the foundation for long term strategy.”

Harmeen Mehta, Chief Information Officer, Airtel said, “Our “Next Generation Sourcing model” is all about creating a smarter IT – from the data center to the end-user’s experience with a view to ultimately offer new and innovative solutions to our customers. IBM’s global expertise to manage large infrastructure operations and application management, coupled with the new IT capabilities we are developing in-house is the latest milestone in our strategy to build a world-class IT services platform as we enter into a new phase in our growth journey in both data and voice.”

Airtel and IBM also have partnerships for IT infrastructure and services across Airtel’s international operations spanning 19 countries including Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

About Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 4 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 289 million customers across its operations at the end of January 2014. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com

About IBM India:

For more information on IBM India, please visit http://www.ibm.com/in/en/