Abuja, Nigeria ( MEDIA )
Nokia Networks has been providing managed services to Etisalat Nigeria since 2008. With Nigeria and Etisalat being a main focus in Nokia Networks’ strategy in Middle East and Africa (MEA), the company is committed to helping the operator and the country provide world class mobile broadband services.
“In line with Etisalat’s strategy to be the best quality of service operator in Nigeria and to improve the operational efficiency, we have signed a new managed services agreement with Nokia Networks,” said Matthew Willsher, CEO, Etisalat Nigeria. “Compared to the previous managed service model, the new agreement covers end-to-end operations and maintenance management for all network elements at Etisalat sites. It has also improved Network Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) according to global best in class standards. Nokia Networks has met our requirements with its delivery capability to achieve our strategy; therefore we have renewed the contract with the company.”
“Renewal of this contract underlines Etisalat’s confidence in our managed service capabilities in ensuring smooth network operations and maintenance,” said Igor Leprince, Senior Vice President and Head of MEA, Nokia Networks. “Our strength in the global scale and expertise to manage complex networks will continue to help Etisalat Nigeria provide the best service experience for its customers. Our further increased focus on innovation and standardization of processes and tools as well as six sigma quality training in our global delivery centers will help our operator customers worldwide including Etisalat transform their network quality and operational efficiency at reduced operational cost.”
Under the scope of the contract, Nokia’s managed services capabilities such as network planning and optimization, operations and maintenance services as well as care services will be provided to Etisalat Nigeria to manage its GSM and 3G networks. Nokia’s NetAct network management system will monitor, manage and optimize the operator’s multi-technology networks.
“This deal hits a large number of evolving managed services sweet spots, including the need for strong service performance, customer experience, security and optimization in what is an increasingly multi-vendor and multi-technology environment,” said Kris Szaniawski, Lead Analyst, Intelligent Networks, Ovum. “As the telecom network services industry experiences a second wave of managed services contracts, we see increased pressure on existing managed services relationships to become more customer-focused and deliver improved service quality. As a consequence there are significant opportunities for vendors such as Nokia Networks to deepen and strengthen their relationships with operators and position themselves as close strategic partners.”
In the first half of 2014, Nokia Networks boosted its managed services business by winning several new contracts and renewing expiring contracts in Asia, Middle East, Africa, Europe and Latin America. Many of the deals are multi-vendor and multi-technology by nature, spanning across 2G, 3G and LTE technologies. In our current managed services contracts, two out of three contracts are multi-vendor. Altogether, these contracts are covering approximately 200 million subscribers and 35000 sites. About 40% of these subscribers are supported by operators who are new managed services customers to Nokia Networks.
Nokia Networks has strong experience in managed service business for over 15 years. Today, the company is managing more than 230000 sites and 500 million subscribers across the world.
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