Ericsson and Liberty Global have expanded their partnership in Europe, building on their existing managed services contract for mobile networks and fixed field services in Poland, Hungary and Austria. The extended deal includes operations consolidation and transfer of services functions from Liberty Global locations in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland and Germany.
In a statement, Ericsson said the aim is to further improve Liberty Global’s network availability and stabilisation with a view to enhancing experiences for the service provider’s customers. No financial details of the contract were disclosed, nor the impact on the local workforce.
Ericsson has been Liberty Global’s European managed services partner since 2016 and has already completed the consolidation of operational services across the existing scope, delivering them both onshore and offshore from Ericsson’s global network operations centres in Romania and India.Ericsson said the deal in the Netherlands applies only to Liberty Global's backbone network there. The VodafoneZiggo joint venture, owned 50-50 by Liberty Global and Vodafone, does not fall under the extended contract with Ericsson.
Ericsson is already the equipment supplier for Vodafone Netherlands' radio network and closed a multi-year contract with the Dutch operator until end-2022. The work includes integrating the fixed and mobile networks over the comign years, with the implementation of an Evolved Packet Core network slicing.
