Ericsson wins another five-year managed services deal

Serbian operator Vip mobile – part of the Telekom Austria Group – has signed a five year managed services deal with Swedish vendor Ericsson.

The agreement covers field maintenance services for access equipment and site infrastructure. As part of the deal, 20 Vip mobile employees will be transferred to Ericsson.

“We believe this contract will deliver even more effective and integrated handling and management of our networks and service delivery,” said Dejan Kastelic, CTO of Vip mobile.

Valter D’Avino, Ericsson’s head of managed services, added that the deal marks the first managed service contract in Serbia for Ericsson, but at the same time it is an extension of the managed services partnership the vendor entered into with the Telekom Austria Group in 2012.

“We are proud to extend this partnership to other countries in a multi-country approach and to ensure that the networks of the group are run with the highest quality,” he said.

Last month, Ericsson announced two major deals to take care of the network operations of Russia’s VimpelCom and India’s Reliance.

VimpelCom’s five-year managed services contract sees Ericsson managing its network operations at more than 10,000 Russian sites, and was Ericsson’s first such deal in Russia. In addition Ericsson will perform field maintenance for network components of the operator’s mobile, fixed and transport networks.

Its contract with Reliance Communications is set to last eight years. The managed services deal is worth $1bn and will see Ericsson assume responsibility for the operator’s fixed and wireless networks in North and West India.

Ericsson said that it has signed more than 300 managed services contracts in more than 100 countries.