BY Emma Elebeke

Telecom analysts have said that the world mobile subscription will hit the all time high of 9.3 billion by 2018. This they said is as a result of the explosion in the number of mobile technology users, especially in Africa.

According to them, Africa has played a large role in reaching these impressive growth records, with the phenomenal ICT explosion that is being witnessed across the world, describing Africa as the continent with the world’s fastest mobile phone users.

With this development, even the more advanced network solutions are required to meet the demand for superior performance, and the natural solution for operators is to sign managed services contracts with partners that assume responsibility for activities such as operating and managing their networks.

It is against this backdrop that ERICSSON says it is embarking on pioneering the development of an Experience Centric Managed Services model.

The model it said, offers operators benefits such as continuous service improvement, reduced time to market, access to technical competence, and a shared focus on user experience. The end result is satisfied users, lower subscriber churn rates, higher average revenue per user and a more cost-efficient operation.

Speaking on this development, the Executive Vice President and Head of Business Unit Global Services of Ericsson, Magnus Mandersson, says: “We’re very proud to have passed the 1 billion subscriber milestone, as this confirms our leadership in managed services.

“We achieved this goal by earning the trust of our customers with our high-performance operations and processes and our skilled people, which are at the heart of Ericsson’s services business. This milestone is just one of many on the journey we have undertaken. The next step is to make the transition from traditional managed services to Experience Centric Managed Services.”

With well over 15 years of experience in managing multi-vendor and multi-technology networks, Mandersson said Ericsson industrialized the concept of delivering managed services for multiple operators through outstanding Global Service Centers and a strong field service organization.

Ericsson is also a leading Managed Services provider in Africa, a position that was strengthened earlier this year Atlantique Telecom, part of Etisalat Group, awarded her a five-year multi-country managed services contract to span the continent.

‘‘This partnership spreads across Western and Central Africa and supports Etisalat’s focus on leading a new generation of operations in Africa while supporting the company’s value added services and offerings. Network operations have traditionally been central to the business of providing communications services.

‘‘During the past decade, however, this has changed. In an age that has seen the introduction of 3G, LTE (4G) and other great innovations, many operators have chosen to appoint a vendor to manage either the new technology or the legacy technology,’’ he stated.

To stand out from the competition, the Ericsson Vice President said operators need to focus on finding new ways of driving business innovation and improving quality of experience for their customers.