Ericsson (News - Alert) announced that it has been selected as managed services partner by Mobily as per a three year multi-vendor agreement. Mobily is a Saudi Arabian mobile operator and a member of the Etisalat group. This agreement marks the biggest one in this industry in the region said Ericsson in a press release.

Ericsson will be taking care of all network operations and field operations besides spare parts management. The multi-vendor network of Mobily will come under the maintenance of Ericsson according to the agreement. Ericsson is expected to maintain high quality of the network and keep its performance optimum.

Mobily will be benefited by reduced operational costs and will continue to own the network and is responsible for its strategic direction as per the managed services agreement.

“Ericsson has been working with Mobily and the Etisalat Group for several years now and it’s an honor to be chosen as a managed services partner for their network,” said Jan Frykhammar, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Global Services at Ericsson.

“With Ericsson running the operations of the network, Mobily will be able to allocate even more time and focus on customer-facing activities,” said Frykhammar.

The partnership between the two companies has been continuing from 2005 and ever since Ericsson has been the chief supplier of network equipment for Mobily besides offering other telecom services.

Ericsson offers managed services which ranges from designing, building, operating and managing day-to-day operations of a customer’s network, like end-user services and business support systems besides hosting service applications and content.

It also provides network coverage and capacity on demand. It caters to185 million subscribers worldwide by managing networks under managed services contract without hosting services. Ericsson provides technology and services to telecom operators. Besides the Sony-Ericsson joint venture provides personal mobile devices said the company.

Shamila Janakiraman is a TMCnet Contributing Editor.

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