Ericsson has opened two new service delivery facilities in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as it looks to help mobile network operators work more efficiently.
The two delivery facilities will help cater for the growing user base of mobile network operators in the region, in addition to acting as support centres to their customers.
During the initial period Ericsson experts drawn from around the world will work together with local professionals to establish the two centres.
This will be followed by a transition of responsibility to the region through structured competence transfer in conjunction with targeted local graduate recruitment.
Lars Christer Johannisson, head of Ericsson’s regional services organisation, said the location of the facilities is based on current business needs.
“It is important to have facilities that can serve multilingual customers across the region,” he said. “While the immediate focus is on managed services, we will be increasing our resources and competence across our entire portfolio so as to be fully prepared for our customers’ needs.”
The move will also support Ericsson’s leadership position in managed services and enhance delivery of their services portfolio across sub-Saharan Africa.
Fredrik Jejdling, head Ericsson sub-Saharan Africa, said: “The facilities will allow us to work even closer with our customers, and support them in delivering a superior end-user experience. As the industry leader in managed services, we have proven capabilities in managing and operating many operator networks worldwide and have recently signed major deals with key African operators including Atlantique Telecom and Airtel.”
Statistics within the mobile technology industry indicate that the number of mobile connections in Sub-Saharan Africa increased by 20 per cent to over 500 million by early 2013. This number is expected to increase by an additional 50 per cent by 2018, thereby necessitating the need for mobile operators to consistently improve and upgrade their services.
