Vodafone UK and Ericsson today announced a seven year agreement which will see Ericsson provide maintenance and operations for Vodafone UK's 2G and 3G radio access networks. The contract includes the transfer of approximately 350 employees from Vodafone to Ericsson, scheduled for the beginning of May.
"We see this as a strategic long-term relationship, offering real operational and financial benefits allowing us, over time, to reinvest savings in delivering new products and services for customers," said Jeni Mundy, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone UK. "Ericsson is the specialist in this area and will be critical in helping maintain our high quality network – which customers expect from Vodafone."
Mats Granryd, Managing Director, Ericsson UK, added: "We are honored that Vodafone has chosen Ericsson as its Managed Services partner for its UK network. We believe Ericsson's experience in Managed Services and the skills and experience that the transferring staff bring will combine positively with our scale advantage to significantly benefit Vodafone with improved quality and superior cost structure. In this contract we are ideally positioned to deliver value to Vodafone UK and it also offers us the opportunity to build on our strong relationship and develop our collaboration further to deliver future business benefits."