Customer experience specialist Amdocs has agreed to acquire network management and SON solutions provider Celcite in a deal worth $129m in cash. Amdocs added that it may pay additional fees for the firm based on the achievement of certain performance metrics.

This acquisition expands the Amdocs customer experience portfolio further into the network software domain to manage customer experience across both networks and IT. The transaction is expected to close late in Amdocs’ current first fiscal quarter or at the beginning of the second fiscal quarter.

In September this year, Amdocs acquired network management firm Actix for $120m in cash, and said that the Celcite deal expands on its network software and services strategy. The vendor claims it will now be able to offer service providers comprehensive equipment-agnostic optimisation solutions.

The firm said the acquisition will position it as the first supplier to offer customer experience-driven network optimisation software and services based on a holistic view of the customer experience across all domains.

“Together, Amdocs, Celcite and Actix will emerge as the preferred provider of network management and SON solutions to service providers worldwide,” said Rahul Sharma, founder and chief executive officer at Celcite. “With the combination of our people, assets, and product and services expertise, we will offer unmatched end-to-end offerings to relieve customers’ core network challenges, including capacity and rollout, and help them tie the customer experience to the network in real-time.”

According to Rebecca Prudhomme, vice president of product and solutions marketing at Amdocs, one of their largest pain-points operators have is dealing with issues that arise within the radio network, which are typically responsible for a large percentage of all customer satisfaction and churn problems.

“The acquisition will enable Amdocs to better offer our customers solutions, both products and services, for the management and Radio Access Network (RAN) optimisation of all mobile networks including 2G, 3G, LTE and small cells to maximise the return from their network assets.”