BT to manage O2's networks

British Telecom and its former cellular arm O2 have come full circle, with the UK incumbent winning a five-year agreement to manage the mobile and fixed core networks for O2, now part of Telefonica, reports Rethink Wireless.

The multimillion pound managed services deal is one of a series of wins for BT Wholesale, building on the telco's new all-IP 21CN (21st century network) platform. By converging the fixed and mobile core on this system, BT says it will enable O2 to handle the data explosion far more flexibly, and support a wide range of highly targeted next-generation applications.

BT already provides core network management support for O2 on the mobile side, as well as a managed network service for its fixed and broadband services for businesses.

Reliant Energy, a Houston-based utility, hired 46 IT workers by the end of last year to work on projects previously done by Accenture under a since-cancelled outsourcing contract, says Computerworld.

The company's decision last year to end the outsourcing contract and bring the work back in-house at first appeared to be simply a story about job creation. But it quickly became fodder in the debate over the relationship between H-1B visa workers and companies that receive US stimulus spending.

Some of Reliant's IT jobs were outsourced to Accenture in 2005. The utility had cut 100 of its 340 IT jobs due to the outsourcing move, though some of the affected workers were to be offered jobs with Accenture. Last year, Reliant reversed itself and decided to take the outsourced work back in-house.

Outsourcing and offshoring of IT infrastructure is emerging as one of the key growth engines for the global technology services industry, saysEconomic Times.

It is estimated the remote infrastructure management market is likely to exceed $8.6 billion in India this year. HP, the global technology giant, will be scaling up the India operations for its IT infrastructure outsourcing business, leveraging on the scale and labour arbitrage that the country offers.

“Today, we see that there are a lot more remote operations possible and there is a shifting of work from onsite to remote. In some parts of ITO, around 80% of the work can be done remotely and here offshore plays a major role,” says Ludger Rohlmann, VP, ITO delivery operations, HP.