Sistema Shyam in talks with IBM, TCS & Tech M for Rs 1, 800 cr IT deal

Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL) is in talks with Tech Mahindra, IBM and TCS for a Rs 1,800 crore IT outsourcing deal that spans over a period of 10 years.
Sistema Shyam group offers mobile services under the 'MTS' brand in India. Sistema Shyam is the only CDMA player, among the new crop of telecom operators which prefer GSM technology over CDMA.
Rajeev Batra, CIO of SSTL said - “A final decision on the deal is expected to be taken by the year-end”. He confirmed that these three IT companies were in the reckoning for the contract, but did not confirm the value of the contract.
Essar Group led Aegis BPO will be looking after SSTL’s BPO operations and the proposed deal will not include the operator’s BPO operations in it.
Sistema Shyam which is going to launch its telephony services in Delhi next month will ask the companies to manage its IT systems across 22 telecom circles including Delhi. MTS also has plans to be a pan-India operator by the third quarter of next year.
IBM which built MTS its green data centres this year is also in the race.
Other telecom companies like Etisalat DB recently awarded the contract worth $400 million to Tech Mahindra, while Datacom’s IT infrastructure management has been awarded to IBM for about $200 million.
Unitech Wireless, in which Norway’s Telenor holds a controlling stake, has outsourced its IT infrastructure management to Wipro for about $500 million.
SSTL was among the nine new companies that were given licenses early past year to launch mobile services. So far, the company has launched CDMA-based services in six circles and has about two million customers in its network.
Apart from SSTL, a string of new players like Datacom, Loop, S Tel, Unitech Wireless and Swan are also in the process of rolling out nationwide services.tema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL) is in talks with Tech Mahindra, IBM and TCS for a Rs 1,800 crore IT outsourcing deal that spans over a period of 10 years.