Motorola, Wipro form Indian services venture

Motorola and Indian outsourcer Wipro Technologies are forming a joint venture to pursue the growing market for outsourced network management services, the companies said Tuesday.

The new company, WMNetServ, will offer outsourced services to telecommunications operators as well as enterprise and government customers, said Sudip Nandy, chief strategy officer of the Wipro Technologies division at Wipro Ltd. Wipro will own a majority of the company, said A.L. Rao, chief operating officer of Wipro in Bangalore.

Motorola will sell the services from the joint venture to its current customers and new clients, while the execution will be done from India, Rao said. WMNetServ will deliver managed services in planning, deployment, optimization, security, operations, and support.

Rao did not reveal how much the two companies are investing in the joint venture. “That will depend on a business plan, which is still being formulated,” he said.

The new company will host a global network operating center in Delhi that will be integrated with Motorola operation centers in North America and Europe. The centers will provide network monitoring capabilities for customers.

While WMNetServ’s primary offices will be in India, the headquarters and a regional subsidiary will be based in Europe, Motorola said.

The collaboration will allow Motorola to benefit from Wipro’s expertise in services delivery as well as the lower costs of staff in India. It ill also let Wipro enter a new line of services for the telecom sector, Rao said. Wipro, which is India’s third largest outsourcer, already offers product engineering to the telecom industry.

Telecommunications network equipment vendors are increasingly looking to earn more revenue from offering services. Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson has taken an early lead in the sector, winning several large contracts to manage networks for operators including three in the U.K., Italy, and Australia. Nokia. announced in June that it would begin running its worldwide managed services business from India, supported by a network operating center in Chennai in south India.