Ericsson managed services contract with MBNL gets extended

MBNL, the network joint venture between UK MNOs EE and Three, has decided to keep Ericsson on as its managed services provider until 2020.

Managed services is a big part of Ericsson’s business, but has been its most problematic division of late thanks to a bunch of ill-advised historical contracts apparently entered into in a desperate drive for growth. Current CEO Börje Ekholm has prioritised profitability over growth and thus encouraged the abandonment of the worst of these, among which the MBNL deal clearly isn’t.

“This marks another significant milestone in our longstanding partnership with MBNL and our joint commitment to deliver superior network quality and performance to Three and EE consumers in the UK,” said Peter Laurin, Head of Managed Services at Ericsson. “We are delighted to continue our successful relationship and continue to evolve our managed services portfolio to deliver innovation and industry leading efficiencies through automation and analytics.”

“The agreement to extend the Design, Plan and Deploy services contract with Ericsson, for a further two years, reflects the strength of the collaborative relationship between Ericsson and MBNL,” said MBNL MD Pat Coxen. “This will continue the trend of collectively delivering great results and is a sign of true partnership. We look forward to continuing the great work with Ericsson in order to meet the demanding business objectives of MBNL and its shareholders.”

So far, so generic, but Ekholm and Laurin will be delighted by any positive news coming out of the managed services division. A major strategic decision has been to restrict its customers to those who already by Ericsson networking gear, which also seems to be a good way of restricting excessive deal-making zeal. You can hear more from Laurin about the strategy for his division in our Inside Ericsson piece.