Such deals like the one Equant reached with UMG are becoming more common, with competitors such as BT Group PLC, AT&T Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. announcing their own customer wins lately, said Mark Winther, an analyst at IDC. 'Companies will outsource the management and operation of their networks because those tasks are just complicated and hard to do -- especially when multiple countries are involved and [with] all the risks of network downtime and the costs involved,' Winther said.