Bharti Airtel, a leading telecommunications services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, says it has undertaken an end-to-end network transformation programme across its mobile operations in 16 African countries.
The company said in a statement made available to PANA here that the programme, which is the largest of its kind on the African continent, was carried out in partnership with Ericsson, a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and services to mobile and fixed network operators.
It involved a comprehensive upgrade and expansion of network elements on all of Airtel’s African operations, including switching, radio, network management, data, charging, and consumer-services platforms and systems.
The network transformation programme, under which Ericsson has deployed latest wireless technologies, will enhance Airtel’s network capacity and robustness and help deliver best-in-class services to customers at affordable rates, the firm said.
It also makes Airtel’s networks fully ready for next generation services that include high speed data and value added services.
Eben Albertyn, Chief Technical Officer, Airtel Africa said “Customer is at the core of everything we do at Airtel. The implementation of this transformation programme will enable us to further enrich our customer experience across the region.”
The transformation programme follows the 2011 announcement of an ongoing five-year multi-country managed services agreement, wherein Ericsson would manage and optimise Airtel’s mobile networks across Africa.
