Basically, the company has decided to invite bids, as it was not getting better deals from the existing partners. Since 2004, IBM has been handling Bharti's IT requirements in a first-of-its-kind deal globally.
Talking to Economic Times, an Executive close to this deal, said, "TCS, Infosys and Wipro along with IBM are in the race as the company is looking for the best deal." While another executive said Bharti may be looking to diversify its partner base as "it would not want to risk putting all its eggs in a single basket".
Some of the sources close to the deal also said that, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens, which maintain and manage Bharti Airtel's networks in India through multi-billion-dollar contracts, are not guaranteed similar deals with Zain.
Bharti has also decided to take its partners along with when it goes overseas, it has been open to engaging with new vendors who offer a better deal. It seems that Franco-American telecom gearmaker Alcatel-Lucent may also be a potential bidder for the African deal; it bagged a $500-million contract from Bharti last year to manage its fixedline networks in India.
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