The Bharti Telemedia subsidiary of the telecom giant Bharti Airtel is reportedly negotiating a deal with two infrastructure service providers Cisco and Alcatel-Lucent, related to outsourcing the 'last-mile' connectivity of its broadband operations.

The 'last-mile' concept essentially constitutes the last lap of delivering connectivity from an operator's end to the customer's place. In the case of broadband services, 'last-mile' connectivity can be either through wired lines or over the wireless. By outsourcing its 'last-mile' operations, Bharti will be able to not only reduce its operational costs, but also concentrate on its core competencies.

According to NDTV reports, the projected endeavor is being spearheaded by a former senior T-Mobile official, and an agreement would get through in the next couple of months. Bharti Airtel already two outsourcing deals - a 10-year, $750 million agreement for outsourcing its IT network to IBM; and the outsourcing of its telecom network to Nokia and Ericsson.

Talking about the benefits Bharti's outsourcing polices, Rishi Sahai, Director of Cogence Advisors, said: "You are constantly seeing that they are using largely the vendors' benefit of scale. That's one of the reasons they are looking for outsourcing. Secondly, their vendor brings to them global best practices. And, more importantly, once they hive off these assets they can look at others coming and sharing these assets."