Reliance Communications, the country?s second largest mobile operator and French telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent, have formed a joint venture. According to sources Alcatel-Lucent has bagged a contract for providing managed services for Reliance?s multi-vendor and multi-technology wireless networks.

The contract, which is assumed to be worth $450-500 million, has brought Alcatel-Lucent under the lucrative GSM space in India. Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular have outsourced their management and maintenance of their networks to Ericsson and Nokia Siemens.

Under the contract, Alcatel-Lucent will provide managed services for Reliance?s CDMA & GSM networks in India, for 12 circles in the north and western parts of the country. The JV is expected to be expanded for Reliance?s global operations too. It is known that a new legal entity will be formed as a part of this joint venture and

Alcatel-Lucent will perform the operational control of the new entity. Media sources reveal that Vivek Mohan, head of Alcatel-Lucent?s India operations was keenly looking at adopting new strategy in India. In a bid to achieve its mark of 30% growth, the company was targeting the network outsourcing market that?s worth over $2 billion.