Bharti Airtel is planning a new collaborative business entity in Africa. The World’s fifth largest mobile operator, already having pioneered Network Outsourcing as well as IT outsourcing, is attempting to try out a new idea which has not been tried elsewhere in the world, except in England, where also it is a 3G network deal.

The idea is to engage with Tier II operators where it has acquired Zain’s assets, and form a new company and share Radio Access Network (RAN) and realted cost burdens. The network will include base transceiver stations and base station controllers. There will be an arms length relationship between the radio access network company and its customers – the mobile operators including Airtel.

Bharti-Airtel is speaking to various companies at this stage to make this a reality. Significant capex savings can be achieved if all these Tier II operators were to come on-board. This move is directly aimed at achieving some leverage against MTN the market leader in some of these geographies.

Airtel has proven that it will do whatever it takes to make Africa a success and will not necessarily just replaicate it’s indian models but use innovation and leverage wherever possible.