Ericsson powers Atlantique Telecom to boost 10m African subscribers

The latest five-year contract won by Ericsson to power mobile networks for Atlantique Telecom in West and Central African operations will boost improved network quality for some 10 million subscribers.

Ericsson’s officials confirmed this in Lagos, saying that the partnership supports Atlantique Telecom’s focus on leading a new generation of operators on the continent.

ITRealms recalls that Atlantique Telecom is part of The Etisalat Group, and had entered a five-year multi-country managed services agreement with Ericsson.

The chief executive officer, Atlantique Telecom, Nagi Abboud, noted that during the past decade, the number of mobile connections in Africa has grown an average of 30 per cent per year and the growth pace is not slowing down.

Atlantique Telecom, he said, aims at developing offerings based on value-added services to its growing subscriber base, taking into account the specific requirements of each consumer and providing solutions tailored to their expectations.

He also said that this agreement enables Etisalat to focus even more on their core business - delivering innovative offerings to their customers.

“With the evolution of the competitive landscape in our markets, we need to adapt our operating model to provide a better service to our end users. Adopting this business outsourcing model is therefore an important step in our group strategy execution that will be for the benefit of our subscribers, who remain our top priority, and this will, as well, open new growth opportunities to our employees,” he said.

Head, Ericsson in region sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Lars Lindén was quoted as saying that managed services is a proven business model to support operators in growth mode and is one of the most dynamic areas in the telecom industry.

“Our work together will support Atlantique Telecom in defining a new generation of operators in Africa,” he said.

He disclosed that the contract covers network operations, field maintenance, network optimization and spare parts management for Etisalat’ s multivendor mobile networks, including access, core and transmission, as well as value added services.

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