Alcatel-Lucent Managed Solutions announced completion of one year since its commencement of the operations last year in July 2008.

“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 of Managed Services, Reliance Communications. “With Reliance Communications holding a 33% equity stake in the Joint Venture, 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%.

Coinciding with the anniversary, the JV announced the appointment of John Crossley as its new CEO. John joins the JV from Middle East where he led ALU’s network operations.

“We are extremely proud to have this unparalleled partnership with Reliance Communications.  Alcatel-Lucent’s recognized expertise in delivering best-in-class services is helping them through the business transformation process while accelerating their operational excellence and increasing customer satisfaction.” said Andy Williams, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s Services activities.

The JV manages RCom’s operations spanning CDMA as well as GSM platforms across the country providing coverage to 80 million subscribers spread over 2 million sq.km of area.

The agreement signed over 5 years is valued at about $ 750 million.