Ericsson to Manage Smile’s 4G/LTE Operations

GLOBAL telecoms vendor company, Ericsson has been engaged under a five-year multi-country managed services agreement to manage Smile Communications’ 4G/LTE networks across all operations in Sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria. This is the first 4G/LTE managed services contract signed in Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to information made available to National Mirror by the Ericsson Nigeria in Lagos, the global vendor company will provide a fully managed end-to-end service that includes network operations, performance, optimisation, field support and maintenance for Smile’s LTE networks in Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria and  later in the Democratic Republic of Congo .

Group Chief Operations Officer of Smile Communications, Mr.Tom Allen, said: “We regard Ericsson as more than a vendor, we are long term partners focused on delivering on the Smile promise to be the broadband provider of choice in Africa and to ensure that our customers fully benefit from the internet world”.

He said that the managed services contract extends Ericsson’s relationship with Smile in Nigeria, where Ericsson is Smile’s sole vendor for 4G networks adding that the agreement also leverages Ericsson’s more than 15 years of experience in managing multi-vendor, multi-technology networks in Tanzania, Uganda and the DRC.

President Ericsson sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Fredrik Jejdling expressed delight over the agreement saying that Ericsson is excited to be delivering this service to Smile as it further extends its partnership with the operator in the region.

”Bringing with us our expertise as global HSPA and LTE leaders, this partnership enables Smile Communications to focus even more on the core business of delivering superior products and services that cater to the needs of its subscribers, whilst at the same time improving operational cost efficiency”, he said.

 Ericsson is the global leader in telecommunications managed services, managing networks for multiple operators worldwide via a combination of global and local network operations centers.

Ericsson employs 66,000 services professionals in 180 countries, and provides managed services for networks that serve more than 1 billion subscribers.

 In addition, Ericsson is present in all high-traffic LTE markets including US, Japan, and South Korea, and is ranked first for handling the most global LTE traffic. Forty percent of the world’s mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks.