News: Ericsson partners Econet on network upgrade

Ericsson has signed an agreement with the Econet Wireless Zimbabwe for the company’s core network upgrade program. The deal would see the two companies working together to simplify and upgrade the existing 2G/3G/4G/LTE networks, future proofing it for the rapid mobile expansion in the country. With the new deal, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe’s network would be upgraded to the latest systems and technologies. Speaking on the new development, Bernard Fernandes, Group CTO of Econet said that, “We have chosen our trusted long-term partner Ericsson to accompany us on this journey and look forward to the ability to launch new products and quality services to our customers.” For Pieter Goosen, Country Manager for Ericsson Zimbabwe, “Econet is the market leader in Zimbabwe and this project will give them one of the most advanced Core networks on the continent, providing them far more capacity to manage and scale their network.” Building on the companies’ existing long-term partnership, the new scope will rationalize and upgrade the Core network as well as introduce the latest Ericsson network architecture. The agreement includes a complete multi-access Evolved Packet Core with Evolved Packet Gateway on SSR 8020, SGSN-MME and Service-Aware Policy Controller as well as Mobile Switching Center and Media Gateway. It also includes close integration between policy and charging functions, which will enable Econet to reduce time-to-market for new offerings and increased personalization capabilities. In the Harare area, which currently carries more than half of all traffic on the network, the project will also upgrade the radio access network (RAN) to include Ericsson’s multi-standard RBS 6000 family of base stations for macro and small cell networks.