"The unique combination of strengths of Alcatel-Lucent and Reliance Communications has been among the key drivers for unprecedented growth and quick subscriber ramp up on the Reliance Mobile network," said Sandip Biswas, Head , Managed Services, Reliance Communications. "With Reliance Communications holding a 33 percent equity stake in the JV, it also offers us significant opportunities to further create value for our many million stakeholders," he added. Within the first year of operations the Joint Venture has demonstrated its capability to achieve operational cost savings of 20-25 percent.

To ramp up the operations and lead the new entity, Alcatel-Lucent Managed Solutions appointed John Crossley as CEO. In his role, John will focus on process improvements and business development opportunities, in India and globally. Prior to taking up this assignment John was leading Alcatel-Lucent?s Middle-East network operations activities. Crossley has been in the telecom industry for over 30 years.

The five-year agreement signed last year by Alcatel-Lucent and Reliance Communications is valued about $750 million. It is one of the largest multi-vendor managed services deal in the world and the first for multi-technology managed services in India (both CDMA and GSM).