Bharti now goes for the masses
PPS | NATION
President Kibaki (right) is introduced to Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal chairman and Group CEO of Bharti Airtel by Mr Naushad Merail the chairman of Zain Kenya when they called on him at Harambee House on Friday. Looking on is the president and CEO of International Business Machines Mr Samuel J. Palmisano.
What you need to know:
- Zain Kenya buyer partners to implement a model perfected in India that seeks to attract a huge number of users throughout Africa
The scramble for Africa’s nascent telecoms market kicked off in earnest with one of the players adopting a model that expected to trigger a vicious battle.
To capture a larger piece of the pie, Bharti Airtel, which recently bought 15 Zain Africa operations including that in Kenya, has started to implement its Indian low-cost model, also known as the minute factory.
The model is based on low charges to attract high volumes.
To achieve this, the mobile phone firm has appointed International Business Machines (IBM) to manage its entire computing technology and services that power its mobile networks in 16 African countries in a 10-year arrangement.
Time for Africa has come
Bharti Airtel chairman and managing director Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal and IBM’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, Mr Samuel Palmisano, in a joint press briefing in Nairobi on Friday promised to use partnerships to transform African mobile communications.
“Networks with global partners are our backbone. We are bringing to Africa a model that has worked well in India,” said Mr Mittal.
“We plan to replicate the success of our relationship with IBM by lowering the barrier to entry for the people of Africa to own a mobile device. No doubt, time for Africa has come,” he added.
Under the deal, IBM will consolidate 16 different IT operations across Bharti Airtel’s African operations into an integrated system and will oversee the management of all the applications, data centre operations, servers, storage and desktop services.
The deal is expected to be finalised in the fourth quarter, they said, without providing any financial details.
Bharti was the first Indian mobile firm to outsource its network to cut costs, a strategy that helped it on its way to become the country’s top operator.
IBM already manages Bharti’s IT infrastructure in India in a 10-year deal that began in 2004. The agreement had an initial value of about $750 million, but is estimated to have grown manifold as it is linked to Bharti’s subscriber and revenue growth.
Bharti said the partnership will help scale up its network and systems to more than 100 million African customers by 2012, from about 36 million currently.
“There are huge opportunities throughout Africa to transform how people communicate and how communities interact. Delivering on that opportunity through affordable mobile communications for everyone is our focus,” said Mr Mittal.
“We see our strategic relationship with Bharti Airtel as a powerful example of building a smarter planet. We have achieved great success together in India, and now we are bringing that model to Africa,” said Mr Palmisano.
“We will help make wireless communications in Africa affordable,” he added.
When the agreement is finalised, IBM will provide customer support applications that include client relationship management, billing and self-care that will empower users and assist Bharti Airtel in delivering 2G and 3G mobile services.
